(click on images for larger view)
Pequabuck Bridge
• Meadow Road over Pequabuck River (bypassed)
• Farmington
• Stone arch
• Length: 22'
• Built c. 1833
This brownstone arch is one of the oldest masonry bridges in the state. In 1830, a town-appointed
committee studied all of Farmington's bridges and concluded that the Pequabuck River crossing needed
immediate attention. At the time, Meadow Road was the principal route between Farmington village
and the farms in the section then known as the Great Plain. Perhaps because the wooden spans that
preceded it had fared so badly (the town had rebuilt the bridge in 1801 and again in 1819), Pequabuck
Bridge was this time built in stone. Like most town-built arches of the period, it is of rubble
construction, with finely cut stone used only for the arch rings.
Construction of the bridge was coordinated with that of the Farmington Canal, which intersected
Meadow Road about 450' to the east. So that farm wagons wouldn't have to climb an extra hill, the
town set two conditions: the new bridge had to be at the same height as the bridge over the canal,
and the canal company had to construct a level embankment between the two bridges. A modern bridge
now carries Meadow Road over the Pequabuck River, which was rechanneled about 300' to the west.
Pequabuck Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
