Berlin Iron Bridge Co. LARGELY DEMO'd

Mill Record Berlin

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Complex Name (Common)

Berlin Iron Bridge Co. LARGELY DEMO’d

Complex Name (Historic)

Berlin Iron Bridge Co. LARGELY DEMO'd

Address or Location

406 Berlin Street, East Berlin, Berlin

County

Hartford

Historic Designation

n/a

Associated Mill Community

n/a

Bird’s-eye aerial image of Berlin Iron Bridge Co., camera facing south; accessed from Bing.com 2015.

Historic Information

Companies Associated w/Complex

Berlin Iron Bridge Co
Berlin Iron Bridge Co

Use (Historic)

Fabricated Metal Products

Largest Documented Workforce

400

Historic Narrative

Berlin Iron Bridge Co. (BIB Co.) grew from the Berlin tinware industry, an unusual origin for a structural fabricator. One direction taken by Roys and Wilcox in its development of metal-forming machinery was to increase the size and horsepower of roll-forming equipment. By the late 1860s the firm had developed rolls capable of forming corrugated iron (not the first to do so). American Corrugated Iron Co. was organized in 1868 to pursue this manufacture. It was succeeded in 1871 by Metallic Corrugated Shingle Co., which changed to the Corrugated Metal Co. in 1873. The evolving firm's business was based on production of corrugated sheet iron and manufacture of shutters, shingles and roofs. Entry into structural iron work began in the early 1870s when the firm made iron roof trusses to support its heavy building materials. In 1878 or 1879 the Corrugated Metal Co. acquired rights to build a lenticular (lensshaped) bridge truss patented by William Douglas in 1878. This new field soon dominated the shop's work and in 1883 the company was renamed Berlin Iron Bridge Co. By 1889 nearly 600 of the patented spans had been erected in the northeast, midwest and Texas. Hundreds more were built in the next ten years; BIB Co. also fabricated structural iron (and steel in the 1890s) for buildings. The firm became the largest structural fabricator in New England, with 400 workers in the fabrication shops and sometimes an equal number in erection crews. American Bridge Co. bought BIB Co. in 1900 and the buildings of the fabrication plant were soon demolished or moved. The lenticular truss became a virtual trademark for BIB Co., though the firm did build some bridges using more standard configurations, such as New Haven's West River Bridge and the plate girder bridge in Waterbury. One advantage of the lenticular form was that it used about 10 per cent less iron than a comparably sized Pratt or Warren. To its disadvantage, the ends of the chord segments in one bridge all had to be machined to different angular specifications. Lateral stability of the lenticular was also an area of concern and William Douglas received a second patent in 1885 for a method of bracing that was intended to increase resistance to lateral loading at the roadway level. BIB Co. promoted the lenticulars aggressively, often not settling for a single sale in one town, but rather continuing sales pressure until every crossing in the town had its own lenticular bridge. Multiple lenticulars are found today in New Milford, Stamford, Waterbury and Plainfield. By the late 1890s it appears that the lenticulars became more difficult to sell; the 1895 Lover's Leap Bridge is the latest one in Connecticut. Since most lenticulars were wrought iron, this decrease in sales was probably caused as much by the replacement of steel for wrought iron as by problems with the truss pattern. Nonetheless, in the last few years before American Bridge Co. bought BIB Co., the firm erected bridges with more common trusses, such as Toelles Rd. Bridge. ...Less than ten per cent of the BIB Co. lenticulars still stand, and at least twenty-two of the survivors are in Connecticut. They are found carrying city traffic at Washington Ave. in Waterbury and Main St. in Stamford, as well as on rural roads and private crossings. There are seventeen pony trusses (from 30' to 78' long) and five through trusses (105' to 188'). The oldest is Waterbury's Washington Ave., which was built c.1881 by the Corrugated Metal Co. (Roth, excerpt)

Architectural Information