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East Haddam Bridge,
Bridge No. 1138
• Route 82 over Connecticut River
• East Haddam - Haddam
• Steel swing truss
• Length: 3 spans, 881' overall, 456' swing span
• Built in 1913
• Boller, Hodge & Baird, engineers
• American Bridge Company, fabricator
Spanning the Connecticut River near East Haddam's historic Goodspeed Opera House is a large
pin-connected drawbridge designed by one of America's foremost bridge engineers. Alfred P. Boller
(1840-1912) designed hundreds of large and complex bridges, including several New York City
drawbridges and the first railroad bridge across the Thames River at New London. He was also
considered the nation's leading authority on deep bridge foundations, an important consideration
in a bridge crossing the Connecticut River. 
The East Haddam bridge incorporates numerous interesting
technical features, including a center-bearing pivot and moving-wedge end lifts that support the
ends of the bridge when closed. The large riveted Pennsylvania truss fixed span, at 326', is itself
one of the longest trusses in the state. The piers and approach roadways were designed by
supervising engineer Edward W. Bush, who had been engineer-in-charge on the Bulkeley Bridge
project in Hartford.
The East Haddam Bridge was one of the first two bridges in Connecticut to be paid for directly
by the state; the other was the 1911 Connecticut Bridge at the river's mouth in Saybrook, replaced
in 1948 by the Baldwin Bridge. At the time, the State Highway Department had no authority over
bridges, so the legislature formed special commissions to build these bridges. The East Haddam and
Saybrook experience showed that such projects served a regional interest beyond the towns directly
involved. The precedent set by these early state bridges led directly to legislation in 1915 that
gave the State Highway Department responsibility for all trunk-line bridges in Connecticut.
