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This page contains the first theories of where the Confederate Bridge stood in 1865.
The conclusions were wrong. Why?
#1: The unique contour of the land shown in William Waud's drawing matches the Castle road site and what we now know is the
true location of the Bridge which is just above today's bridge (not below at Castle Road).
Both sites have a creek just above the potential bridge location which creates the
ravine seen in the 1865 drawing.
#2: The Historical Marker for "Broad River" contains a gross error where it states that
Sherman's pontoon crossing occurred downstream of today's bridge site.
The crossing could only have occurred upstream of that location. It was later learned
that many of the Historical markers that were created in the late 1930's were created by
unqualified individuals during that period of time when our Government was putting people
back to work at the end of the Great Depression.
#3: Col. Stone's landing could have occurred in the rough area just below today's diversion dam.
During flooding conditions (as existed early in 1865) much of that area may have been flooded.
One account of Stone's crossing describes "multiple bayou".
#4: Sherman's 1865 map of Columbia was a simple map. No scale was given so there probably
were no measurements taken. Making the 3 bridges equal distance from each other was probably
a simplification on the part of the map maker.
#5: This theory assumed that McGowan's Ferry was at the Castle Road site which we know now
is not true because of the error in Mills' Atlas. Given the new location of this ferry,
the statements in the 1865 petition imply that the new determined locations of Stark's Ferry
and the Confederate Bridge are correct.
#6: Like #5, the "Annals of Newberry" also show
that the 1858 bridge is at the location of the newly determined Confederate Bridge site.
#7. This theory was proven incorrect even before the discovery of the 1820 map and 1867/1870 surveys.
There are several serious errors in this map in the north-western area of Columbia.
There is also much evidence showing that a road on the west side of the Broad River at
Castle Road was never documented during the 1800's.
Below are the bad theories. I am presenting these here
as an example of how a couple of inaccurate sources (like the Mills' Atlas and the Broad River Historical Marker) can really
throw your research off-track.
Historical
Records and finds pointing to the remains on Castle Road site as being the remains
of the Confederate
Broad River Bridge.
The 7 pieces of evidence and the reasons why:
Summary:
1. William
Waud 1865 Illustration - Land Contour matches Castle Rd Abutment site. Opening in
canal embankment fits with Castle
Rd Abutment site. Small size of river pier and
partial span of the bridge (only across the river and not the canal)
indicates that this was a temporary bridge and not meeting the requirements
of the 1825 bridge specifications.
2.
Historical Marker on the Broad River
Bridge - Specifies that Sherman's pontoon
crossing occurred downstream of this location. All accounts (and the Waud
drawing) prove that the pontoon bridge was built upstream of the burned
bridge making the abutment at Castle the site of the Confederate bridge.
3. Union
Col. Stone's landing - Stone landed on a 200 yard by 25 feet wide island.
Only one island exists in the river and it matches this description. It is
above the castle Road site and below the current bridge. Stone said it was
just above the burned bridge. Must be the Castle Road Abutment site. Stark's
ferry road is on the west side across from this island. The road from the Castle Road
site connected to Stark's ferry road. Stone would have needed a road to
move his 3 pontoon boats which were each carried by a horse and carriage.
From old maps, the distance traveled on this route is 1/2 a mile. Exactly
what Stone said in his report.
4. Sherman's 1865 map of Columbia Bridges - Shows all
three Columbia bridges to be equal distance
from the convergence of the Saluda and Broad Rivers.
This agrees with a bridge at the Castle
Road but it's way-off for today's bridge.
5. 1865
General Assembly Petition for a ferry or new bridge - States that Stark's
ferry is above the burned bridge and McGowan's ferry site is just below the
burned bridge. This could only be true about a bridge at the Castle Road
site. Also, it states that McGowan's ferry uses the same road as the burned
bridge did. This is true about the Castle Road site but not today's
bridge site.
6. 1858
“Annals of Newberry” also places the 1858 bridge at the site of the old
McGowan’s ferry. New York Times articles show that the bridge shown in the
1844 plats (at the site of today’s bridge) was destroyed in the great flood
of 1852.
7. Large
Scale 1897 Map of Richland
County and 1898 photo
and caption - Map places the 1897 bridge at the Castle Road site. The 1898 photo
states that this bridge was burned when Sherman
came through and that it lies just above Camp Fornance
. Bridge at Castle Road
site lands (on the east side) just above where Camp Fornance
was located in 1897-1898.
Below are
the details on each piece of evidence:
1. What you are looking at below is the 1865 Civil War drawing by William
Waud of Harper's Weekly (Library Of Congress: Gen Sherman & Staff passing
over the Pontoon Bridge: By William Waud: Published in: Harper's Weekly,
April 15, 1865). Waud was an Architect from London
who came to America
just before the Civil War started. During the war he mostly stayed in the
south making drawings of Civil War battles. During the end of the war, he
traveled with Sherman on Sherman's final march. Waud, and his
brother Albert, were recognized as the best of the Civil war illustrators.
The Waud drawing of Sherman's Broad River crossing is the piece of evidence that
first inspired my research. In my first viewing of the drawing (which was
in Joey Holleman's 2005 State newspaper article about the burning of
Columbia), I immediately recognized, in the drawing, that the contour of
the west side of the river matched the area around our property relative to
the location of the bridge remains (that is, where the west abutment is
found today and where it appears in the 1865 drawing). At that time, my
only reservation about the drawing was that it showed what appeared to be
an opening in the river as though there was a very large island in the
river. In the drawing this island ends just below where the bridge had
crossed. I would later find, in an 1825 map, that there was a one mile long
Island in this area and that Compty's bridges and McGowan's ferry of
1790-1825 were located just below the tip of this island (almost exactly
where the bridge seemed to cross.) I later found references to the island
as being named "Bush's Island".
In
researching the canal I found that the north most section of the Columbia canal was
first formed in the early 1800s by using an island. This was before the
diversion dam was created and this one mile long canal was called Lorick's
canal. It was very small being only 8 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Below is
an 1825 Lexington County map showing the Island
that was used to form the canal (Library Of Congress: Lexington District,
South Carolina / surveyed by M. Coate, 1820 ; improved for Mills' atlas.).
In the
late 1830s, the canal was extended down to Columbia
by building an embankment from the bottom of Bush
Island to Columbia. Most of this canal extension
was destroyed in the flood of 1840 but later rebuilt, widened and deepened
in the 1890s. Today, the canal is about 160 feet wide and 16 feet deep and
it carries, under normal conditions, 80% of the water from the Broad River. Today's aerial photographs show how the
canal embankment is very wide from the diversion dam (located at the top of
the old Bush Island) until one mile down where it
becomes very narrow. This narrowing occurs directly across from the
location of our bridge abutment.
Examining
the area around today's Broad River Bridge (which is half a mile above the
Castle Road abutment); the land contour on the west side doesn't match
Waud's 1865 drawing as well as the area around the Castle Road site. Also,
today's bridge crosses over what would be the middle of the old Bush Island
so it makes no sense that there would have been a channel of water running
through the middle of this island in 1865.
Above is a photo from the
east side of the river which I believe shows the area of Waud’s drawing.
Our house is on the upper left side and the bridge remains are just to the
left of the house and about 2/3 of the way down the slope (red circle) from
the house. The artist would have been in the middle of the electric line
easement area (green circle). You can see the ravine in the center. Note:
This picture was taken from a new observation platform on the Canal
Embankment Riverwalk. In the aerial image below, I plotted what would have
been the span of the old bridge and it would have passed right above this
point. This image is from the Richland
County GIS
system. The contour lines show the slopes. The green circle is where I
think the Waud was sitting when he made his 1865 drawing. The red circle is
where the bridge remains are and the red line shows where the bridge would
have gone across the river. The green line shows the relative position of Sherman's pontoon
bridge.
One other
note about the Waud drawing and proof to the fact that Sherman’s
crossing occurred at Bush
Island is the width
of the river where the pontoon bridge crossed. This would have been easy to
estimate by the Union army based on the number of pontoon bridge segments
that they used in the crossing. The length was recorded as about 175 yards
(525 ft). Looking at an aerial of today’s theorized crossing, this distance
would be 560 feet during high water conditions. The total width of the
river (crossing Bush river and the small canal) would be 1000 feet so we
know that the crossing had to occur across Bush Island.
The South Caroliniana Library also has a drawing (available in the Richland County
Library's online digital images) of the canal crossing at the Broad River and this shows the construction of a
small bridge. The document images below show these things.
(History
of the Ninety-Third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: From ...by Aaron
Dunbar - 1898)
2. A second very significant piece of evidence is the Historical Marker on
today's Broad River
Bridge. This marker
was erected in 1938. The people involved in its creation would have had
firsthand knowledge of the events around 1865. The historical marker
contains mostly general information about nearby events but it does get
very specific about one thing. It states that Sherman's pontoon crossing occurred
downstream of this location.
I have
read many accounts of the Broad River pontoon crossing and they all state
that the pontoon bridge was built just upstream of the burned Broad River
Bridge (as also shown in William Waud's drawing).
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by Lucy Shelton Stewart - United
States - 1930 - 484 pages
General OM Poe, in his report,
October 8, 1865, says: " "On the 17th a pontoon
bridge was built just above the ruins of the former bridge over Broad River, ...
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This
“downstream” remark seems to be an admission or clue by the creators of the
historical marker that the current day bridge is not in the same location
as the Confederate bridge. The marker also states that the bridge was
rebuilt in 1867. The Broad River Bridge company was not reformed until 1870
(according
to:Records of the Broad River Bridge Company, Columbia, S.C., South
Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina: Manuscripts Annex:
Ledger, 1870-1898) and, at that time based on an early 1870s county map,
they "rebuilt" at the current location of today's bridge. This is
another clue that there were two locations of the Broad River Bridge
during the 1800s. One at the current site of the bridge and the other one
being downstream. I have read many General Assembly petitions from the
1800s which contained requests to build/rebuild a bridge near Stark's ferry
and others near McGowan's ferry. Again, two different possible bridge sites
with one seeming to be superior in ease of access. Alexander Stark's last
petitions (SC Department of Archives and History: Series: S165015 Year -
1818 Item - 00042.) raved about how better his road was to his ferry as far
as being shorter and less steep. Several petitions (see these under the section:
"Locating the Broad River Ferries and Bridges" ) include distances
that place Stark's ferry at 400 yards ( Ľ mile) above McGowan's ferry which
would place Stark's ferry at about Ľ a mile below today's bridge.
Today's Bridge
site would definitely be better as far as road approach goes although I'm
not sure just how much of this was achieved by modern day earth moving.
Another point that supports alternating bridge sites is that the abutments
on Castle Road
are small compared to those of the Civil war era Congaree and Saluda Bridges and also smaller than the 1870 Broad River Road
Bridge. I believe the bridges on Castle
Road were the original Compty Abutments of the
1790s with the one at our site being reused through-out the 1800s as a
temporary bridge while the main Broad
River Bridge
was being rebuilt which seemed to happen about every 10-15 years. We know
as late as 1925, that the Broad
River Road Bridge burned and a temporary bridge
was erected in one month. Even in 1925, it would take 4 years to rebuild
the main bridge and the temporary bridge would be rebuilt 3 times in the
four years due to flood damage. My guess is that temporary bridges and
ferries probably accounted for maybe half of the river crossings here during
the period of the larger scale bridges of the 1800s.
3. The Third piece of evidence is from the many well-known accounts about
Union Colonel George A. Stone of the Twenty-fifth Iowa Infantry Regiment on the Night of
February 16, 1865. Stone is most known to Columbians as the man who
accepted the city's surrender from our mayor and he was in the first group
of Union soldiers that entered Columbia.
Before the surrender, Stone's job was to get a group of Union sharpshooters
across the Broad River in boats so that
they could clear the enemy from the area where the pontoon bridge would be
built. With great difficulty, Stone was able to get a rope over the Broad River at a point about one-half a mile above
the burned bridge where the river was at its most narrow point. After
crossing on boats, Stone discovered they were on a small crescent shape
island about 200 yards long and 25 yards wide and a just feet away from the
east bank of the river. They were forced to wade through 3-4 foot deep icy
water to get to the other side. Other accounts also state that multiple
islands were actually crossed in his attempt. These would have been the
small crescent shaped island and the larger Bush Island.
Had the burned bridge been at today's Broad River
Road Bridge
site, Stone would have been making his crossing (which he stated to be ˝ a
mile above the burned bridge) at the top of Bush Island
and it would have been no surprise to him and his men that this was an
island. Instead, he states that they landed first on a small island. Today,
there is only one "land" island within a mile (up or downstream)
of the Broad River
Road Bridge.
There are some rock islands but these, unlike the one land island, are all
covered during higher levels of the river like that that existed at the time
of the Pontoon crossing. This small land island, today, appears exactly as
it did 70 years ago as can be seen in the 1939 aerial photos of Columbia. I think
it's safe to say the same island was present another 70 years back in the
time of the Civil war. It can also be seen that this small island creates,
by far, the shortest "rope" throw when the other rock islands are
under water. I believe this has to be the island that Stone landed on. I
have measured the depth of water between this small island and Bush island
and it ranges from inches deep in low water conditions to about 3-4 feet
deep in the normal higher levels. We know that the original canal was only
about 8 feet wide and a few feet deep so this would have been crossed next
which agrees with the other Stone account of multiple islands crossed. This
position of this small island rules out today's Broad
River Bridge site
as the Confederate
Bridge site because
today's bridge site is above this island contrary to the Civil war accounts
of Stone's Regiment. The island is above the Castle road site which makes
it a candidate for the Confederate
Bridge. Below are
photos of today’s island which fits the description of Stone’s Island.
 
4. Sherman's 1865 map of Columbia
showing Columbia's
3 bridges. Of all places, I found this map in a book on the discount table
at Books-a-Million. It's a map made by the map makers of Sherman's 4th Division, 15th Army Corps.
The book "Map and Mapmakers Of The Civil War" by Earl McElfresh
discusses how Sherman
had the best map makers in the country. Note, in the map (below), that all
three Columbia bridges are the same distance
from the center of the Broad River and Saluda River
convergence. Today's map shows the same when you accept the bridge remains
at our site as the location of the old Broad River
bridge. The current day location of the bridge would be a 50% error on the
part of the 1865 map maker in marking the location of the Broad
River bridge.
Below is
today’s map show near equal distances (like the old map) between the
Gervais, Saluda, and Castle Road Abutment. The current day
bridge location would be off the top of the above map.
5. I believe the next and 5th piece of evidence is the major break-through
in the Confederate
Bridge case. It is a
rare Civil war era 1865 Petition to the SC General Assembly asking for a
Bridge or Ferry charter. Clues to the position of the burned bridge are
given in this document. The petition states that the bridge was burned to
stop Sherman
and that an un-chartered ferry has been in operation at the site of Stark's
old ferry ever sense. The petition requests that if a bridge cannot be
built now, then they would like a "ferry to be erected at McGowan's
site where the state road crosses the river just below where the bridge
stood". One of my first theories of our property was that that today's
power lines at our site mark the old road that led to this crossing. I have
other petitions and a drawing that state and show a Sharp's ferry to be 3
miles above McGowan's ferry. If you look on today's map, exactly 3 miles
above our site is the next crossing point for the same type of high voltage
power lines. Coincidence? The power lines at our site cross the river in
almost a perfect east-west line. The river at that point, however, is
curved and evidence (which is the abutment at our site and the stones found
on the canal embankment) suggest that the bridge crossed perpendicular to
the river (which of course is what you would expect a bridge to do). What
this means is that the power lines (and old road) form a line that starts
below where the bridge would have started on the east side of the river but
then crosses over the bridge and lands above the bridge on the west side of
the river. This is very important to recognize. The petitioner would have
been addressing people from the Columbia
area so I believe in his statement "where the state road crosses the
river just below where the bridge stood" is relative to the Columbia side of the
river.
Now, after
understanding the position of McGowan’s ferry landing and applying this to
the span of the Castle road bridge onto the Columbia side of the river… The key
statement in this document is in the one sentence where the author states
that the Broad River Bridge stockholders have been operating a ferry at
Stark’s old ferry site since the burning of the bridge but that they would
give up all rights to this ferry if the Senate will allow them to start a
ferry BELOW the burned bridge. This means that Stark’s old ferry must be
ABOVE the Confederate
Bridge site since
they have distinguished McGowan’s as being “BELOW”. We know from so many
other documents and maps that Stark’s old ferry was Ľ a mile below today’s bridge and Ľ a mile
above McGowan’s ferry. In this case, BELOW the burned bridge points to the
Castle road abutment which supported a bridge across the river that landed
on the east such that McGowan’s ferry was just “BELOW” it. Also, we know
from the 1844 Lexington County plats that the position of today’s Broad
River Bridge was determined by the northern boundary of the Stark’s
property so the Stark ferry could never have been above today’s Bridge
site. On a side note, why did these people want the ferry below the burned
bridge? If you look at Waud’s drawing, you can see the opening in the canal
embankment (below the tip of the old Bush Island).
They probably wanted a ferry crossing point that would clear the entire
river and not land on an Island as would be
the case with Stark’s ferry location. Below is a picture of today’s Castle
site and how the Bridge and Ferry would have worked. I have removed a
portion of the canal embankment to match the 1865 drawing by Waud. The
Ferry on the west side must start just above the Bridge because the area
from the Bridge and downstream is not suitable for a Ferry (it’s too steep
and the river has too many exposed rocks in lower water conditions.) The
east side of the river must have the reverse so that the ferry misses the
tip of Bush Island while the Bridge takes the
shortest path. Thus, on the east side of the river, the Ferry and road are
below the Bridge as stated in the 1865 Petition. We also have proof that
the road to the bridge always came in below the bridge. This can be seen in
the 1901 map and in the 1898 photo.
You have
to look very closely at this 1865 petition and think about other pieces of
the puzzle to understand it. I have had this document for at least 6 months
but was not able to understand it until now. I believe the author describes
the very unique nature of our site. At the very least, the petitioner's
statement shows that McGowan's ferry site and the burn bridge are very
close to each other and accessed by the same road. This cannot be true
about today's bridge site which is ˝ a mile above McGowan's site and has
always been connected to the Newberry/Columbia road where it reaches the Broad River. I believe this is proof that the
Confederate bridge was at the Castle
Road crossing site and probably the location
of the bridge that would be rebuilt in 1867.
Adding to this, we know from the William Waud drawing and from accounts of
a Union army officer, that the stone piers of the burned Broad River Bridge
remained intact after the burning. It would seem to make sense that, during
the financial limitations at the beginning of the reconstruction period,
that the requested bridge construction would have taken advantage of the
existing piers and abutments which are the most labor intensive parts of
building the bridge. Remember that, in 1867, slave labor was no longer
available. It appears that the Broad
River Bridge
company did not have insurance on this bridge maybe because their previous
insurer had ties to a Northern based bank. The company was not able to
reform until 1870 and it appears, at that time, that they returned to the
current day site for that bridge.
Below are
photos of the 1865 petition (SC
Department of Archives and History: S165015 ND 5742) and below that is a
typed version of its contents.
 
The State of South
Carolina - 1865 -
SC Archives S165015 ND 5742
To the Honorable members of the Senate
The humble petition of the Stockholders of the Broad River Bridge,
showeth that at the time of Sherman’s raid
through our once prosperous country, the Bridge over the Broad River near Columbia was burned
to check his march to that place. The stockholders thereby suffering great
pecuniary loss and the citizens in the Fork and of Columbia deprived of a very great
convenience in crossing the river going to and from the same. The
stockholders are anxious to rebuild the bridge, but they were more or less
sufferers in the devastating raid, that their energies and their means have
been so crippled; they are unable to rebuild the Bridge without some
assistance from your honorable body.
Therefore, you think, in your wisdom, you cannot acquire therein any
assistance by ? appropriations, or otherwise, which they wish you to take
into consideration to grant therein, at least, the privilege of erecting a
ferry across the river at Mrs. McGowen’s old ferry place, where the state
road crosses the river short distance below where the bridge stood. The
road had been laid out as a state road thirty feet wide and a part of it
there piked a year ago. The stockholders are appraised of the idea that
they cannot establish a ferry at the place ? without obtaining a charter
from your body. They would beg leave
to reflect on your Acts. Act prefaced 1813 and another prefaced in 1825. By
the latter Act the conferring have to allow Mrs. McGowen and Mrs. Stark
each seventy shares of capital stock for their ferries (end of page 1) and
as there has been a ferry ever since the burning of the bridge at Stark’s
old ferry, owned by individuals owning the lands on either side of the
rivers, and who too are stockholders in the bridge, would waive all rights
to that ferry, and only ask leave to erect or establish one below the
bridge. The profits accruing from this ferry would be ? ?
, if properly applied , in establishing the bridge. There is
generally a great deal of crossing at this place, and wagons and other
vehicles are often detained for a considerable time to their inconvenience
and often frustrates their arrangements. The present ferry likes no
competition and charges exorbitant rates for crossing, which gives great
complaint and ? among the public who cross and almost a nuisance . Your petitioner hopes that
your honorable body will take with consideration the statements herein set
forth, and grant the stockholders, at least, a charter to erect said ferry
and your petitioners will ever prey.
Names of signed: John Hiller, L.C. Dreher, J.W. Dreher, C. Mickler,
A. Crawford, J.M. Blakely, E. Nunamaker, Dury, Nunamaker, Jacob Wingard,
John G. Wingard, H.L. Wise, J.S. Derrick, J. S. Smith, S. G. Lowman,
Ballintine
(end of page 2)
We, the undersigned, being
convinced of the great
necessity of the building the Broad River Bridge do hereby certify that the
allegations and statements as set forth in the within petition of the stockholders, are
substantially true and correct in every particular, and do hope that their
petition prey be granted.
Names of signed
6. In part
one of “The Annals of Newberry: In Two Parts” (by John Belton O'Neall, John
Abney Chapman), the author is telling a story of an event that took
place in 1811 when McGowan’s ferry was the only crossing point on the Broad
river. He mentions that the Broad
River Bridge
is now (1858) located at the site of the old McGowan’s ferry. This book was
written in 1858 which means the Civil war era bridge is at McGowan’s ferry.
Below the excerpt from the “Annals of
Newberry”:
There are many finds that place McGowan’s’ ferry site
(and Compty’s 1790s bridges) at the Castle Road site. I know from the
1844 Lexington
County plats that the
larger scale 1844 bridge was at the site of today’s bridge but it was
destroyed in the great flood of 1852 as shown in the following New York Times
archived articles:
7. Lastly,
a sixth piece of evidence is an 1897 Richland
county map and an 1898 photo of the Broad river
bridge. Major floods in 1890s likely (again) destroyed a nice bridge at the
current bridge site. This 1897 large scale county map shows the bridge at
the castle road site. I have marked in green where the current day bridge
should be on this map so that you can see a significant difference in
position.
Taking
measurements between four different land marks (the Gervais St. Bridge,
Smith's Branch, the West Columbia Rail
Bridge, and the Capital Building)
the error in measurement with today's map is between 1% and 6% for a bridge
at the castle road site. Doing the same with the site of today's bridge,
the error ranges from 12% to 55%.
Table of
Measurement Errors:
Percent error with: Current Day Bridge -- Bridge Remains on Castle Road Gervais Street Bridge 20% 5% Smith's Branch 55% 6% West Columbia Rail Bridge 12% 3% Capital Building 15% 1%
Somewhat related to this map is an 1898 picture of the Broad River Bridge.
The photo below shows a bridge in fairly good condition although not new so
I think we can assume that this is the bridge shown on the 1897 map. It is
taken from the Columbia
side (as you can see the canal) where today you find a very broad and flat
landing area which matches today's east side of the river across the river
and canal from Castle Road.
It also shows the Columbia
road from the bridge going south (below the bridge) which agrees with the
1865 petition that states that the road comes in below the bridge. As far
as the Civil war goes, however, the most significant thing about the photo
is not the image but the caption on the back (Columbia
South Caroliniana Photographs 12050 box).
The photographer was Harry M. King who trained at Columbia's Camp
Fornance, between November 1898 through March 1899. Camp Fornance
was a Spanish American War Training camp that was only in operation for a
couple of years. Its position is well known and shown circled in red with
the Castle Road
bridge site drawn in green. Mr. King's caption states that this is the
bridge located just above his camp and that this was the bridge burned by Sherman. Of course,
we know that the Confederates burned the bridge and not Sherman but Mr.
King, being from Rhode Island,
would have been repeating what he heard locally.
There must be some accuracy in what he heard because he
also notes that the bridge is 1060 feet long. That's exactly what you get
when the plot the bridge on today's Richland County GIS system from our
abutment on the west side to a east side landing like that shown in this
photo.
Update: Further examination of the 1897
maps shows some gross errors in the map. Most notably, the position of
Crane Creek is way off and there’s no clear explanation of how this could
have happened. Also, the fork of North Main
and River Drive
should be exactly east of the bridge if the bridge was at the Castle Road
site. One possible explanation is that the 1897 bridge was really at the
position of today’s bridge and this map maker used an older map (showing
the Castle Road position of the bridge) and used measurements based on the
old position but placed other landmarks (like the fork of River Drive)
relative to the position of today’s bridge.
In any case, I no longer consider the 1897 map to be a reliable
piece of evidence. I think now that it is more likely that the 1897 bridge
was located at today’s bridge site and not at Castle Road.
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