The Berlin Iron Bridge Company's fabricating plant was located in the East Berlin section of town on the banks of the Mattabesset River. The first shop buildings, on the west side of the river,
were of wooden construction and were continually enlarged over the years as the company's business grew. Around 1890, the company built a new iron-framed shop, 80 feet wide and 400 feet long, on the east side of the river, where it relocated most of its fabrication work.
The process of manufacturing structural iron for bridges and other uses involved taking basic forms of the metal as it came from rolling mills (most of which were located in Pennsylvania and the Midwest) and making it into whatever girders, beams, and other components were needed. Giant shearing machines were used to cut bar stock, plate, angle-iron, rod, I-beams and other rolled forms to the length needed. Punches made holes in the various parts so that they could be riveted together. Drill presses made the larger holes, such as those for the pins in bridge connections. Certain pieces had to fit together so precisely that, once they were made up, the ends were finished off by huge milling machines.
In order to move the heavy material around, the company's new shop was equipped with numerous overhead travelling hoists and with three sets of narrow-gauge railroad tracks within the building. Raw materials were shipped in and bridge parts shipped out via sidings that ran down both sides of the building and also interconnected with the internal narrow-guage tracks. Ample natural light was admitted through large wall windows and a central skylight or monitor roof that ran the length of the building. The building also had electric lights powered by its own generating system.
Many of these features, as well as bridge parts and roof trusses underway, are visible in this view of the interior of the company's new shop. The plant was laid out so that the basic forming of the material with shears and punches took place at the west end, riveting was done in the middle area of the shop, and final machining of the bridge parts took place at the east end, where they were then loaded onto railroad cars for shipment to the site.
For more information on the shop and its equipment, click the image and take a virtual tour of the plant.
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