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Construction
| · Dedication Stone | · Materials |
| · Engineers | · Plans |
| · Equipment | · Schedule |
| · Specifications | |
| · Mason's Marks | · Spillway Dam and Canal |
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The Canton Viaduct was built to carry trains weighing 8 Tons (16,000 lbs) and traveling about 20 Mph. An 1834 railroad passenger car that has been modified from an early stagecoach. This 1834 model ran for many years in the B&P RR Dedham Branch Service, at times with horse power. A typical coach held nine passengers. This car was displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, then stored at Roxbury, MA. Eventually it was loaned to Purdue University. It's location is unknown at this time. A similar B&P RR car is in the collection at the Museum of Transportation near St. Louis. From the collection of George T. Comeau, Canton, MA |
Today, the Canton Viaduct carries Amtrak's high-speed Acela train weighing 200,000+ lbs (100+ Tons) and traveling up to 150 Mph. Acela's are restricted to 90 Mph over the Canton Viaduct because of it's curve and proximity to passengers at Canton Junction station only 200 yards away. |
The Canton Viaduct is the only bridge in the United States using parallel walls running its entire length in conjunction with segmental deck arches. The bridge could have been using open arches like the Thomas or Starrucca Viaducts. The 21 semi-circular deck arches on each side, they do not connect to the deck arches on the other side of the viaduct. The deck arches support the deck past the face of the parallel walls, providing half the support for the deck.
The Boston & Providence Railroad Corp. hired the Dodd & Baldwin Co. the construct the bridge.
The foundation stone was laid on April 20th, 1834
The Dedication Stone (actually 2 stones joined together by iron straps) bearing the names of the Directors of the Boston and Providence Railroad Corporation was originally set at the western end (Providence) in the parapet wall. During the double-tracking renovation of 1860 the parapet wall was removed and the Dedication Stone was knocked off into a field and broke into several pieces, some of which were never found. The Dedication Stone lay in the field for 20 years until another renovation in 1880 to replace the wood fence with an iron fence occurred. At that time the broken edges of the stones were squared-off, reassembled and set atop the Canton Viaduct at the eastern (Boston) end. The repairs made to the bottom stone caused two Directors names to be cut in half. During the 1993 electrification project, the stone was relocated again and set atop the Canton Viaduct Park monument.
The inscription reads:
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This Viaduct Erected by the B. & P. R. R. Co. Directors T. B. WALES. Pre.
J. W. REVERE. J. F. LORING. C. H. RUSSELL. C. POTTER. J. G. KING |
The names of the two Directors that are obscured are W. W. Woolsey and P. T. Jackson. B&P RR records indicate that these two men were directors of the B&P RR at the time of the Canton Viaduct's construction. If you look closely, you can match their names to the broken inscription.
T. B. Wales = Thomas B. Wales (Esq.), President of the B&P RR Corp.
P. T. Jackson = Patrick T. Jackson, a Director of the B&P RR Corp.
W. W. Woolsey = William W. Woolsey, a Director of the B&P RR Corp. and a Director of the B&P RR & Transportation Co. (RI)
J. W. Revere = Joseph Warren Revere, a Director of the B&P RR Corp. and Owner of the Revere Copper Works (founded by his father, Paul Revere in 1801) in Canton, MA
J. F. Loring = John F. Loring, a Director of the B&P RR Corp.
C. H. Russell = Charles H. Russell, a Director of the B&P RR Corp. and a Director of the B&P RR & Transportation Co. (RI)
C. Potter = Charles Potter, a Director of the B&P RR Corp. and President and Treasurer of the B&P RR & Transportation Co. (RI)
J. G. King = A Director of the B&P RR Corp.
This is the back side of the Dedication Stone
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FOUNDATION STONE LAID APRIL 20 1834 |
April 20th, 1834 was a Sunday. The Canton Viaduct was completed on July 28th, 1835; it took 15 months and 8 days to complete.
The Dedication stone is approximately 5' Long x 3' High x 1.5' Wide (22.5 Cubic Feet)
Granite weighs 168 Lbs/CF, so the stone weighs approximately 3,780 Lbs.
The number of granite blocks and weight of the Canton Viaduct has yet to be calculated.
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George Washington Whistler From the Smithsonian Institution |
George Washington Whistler, Engineer, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana May 19th 1800. Whistler died in St. Petersburg (formerly Petrograd, then Leningrad now St. Petersburg again), Russia on April 7th 1849. Whistler was employed by the Czar of Russia at the time to build the October Railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow; 402 miles long with over 200 bridges. Whistler graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1819. Whistler was an early railroad pioneer, and with Jonathan Knight, William Gibbs McNeill and Ross Winans he examined the early railroads of England on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and soon thereafter was engaged to build that railroad. Whistler also invented Contour Lines for mapping, which are still in used today. Although George Washington Whistler is buried in Stonnington, Connecticut a monument was erected in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York to hail Whistler as a pioneer of early American engineering. Whistler married McNeill's sister Anna and in 1871 she sat as a model for their artist son, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, for one of America's most beloved portraits, Whistler's Mother. |
| Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery: New York's Buried Treasure | Jeffery I. Richman | George Washington Whistler
A monument was erected in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York to hail George Washington Whistler as a pioneer of early American engineering. |
| Russia Enters The Railway Age, 1842-1855 | Richard Mowbray Hayward | George Washington Whistler |
This article appeared in the May edition of Excavating Engineer, 1936.
from the collection of George T. Comeau, Canton, MA
Examples of Multiple Arch Construction
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The Scottish Stone Masons who built the Canton Viaduct were paid by results, and as each laid a stone in place, he chiseled his mark on it. These marks were used as a record of work, thus determining the Mason's wages. Many of the Scottish Stone Masons that built the Canton Viaduct are buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Canton, MA. Do their tombstones bear their Mason's Marks? |
Moyle Quarry (Rattlesnake Hill) - Sharon, MA
Used for the finish stone
Dunbar's Quarry - Canton, MA
Used for the foundation and backing stone
Aerial photo of the Dunbar St. area
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Partial Isometric Elevation with Deck removed |
Northwesterly (front) and Southeasterly (rear) Elevations |
The Spillway Dam at Neponset St. and Canal are located in front of the Canton Viaduct; the canal starts at the dam's waterfall, continues under the Neponset St. bridge and ends about 200' after that. It is believed that these water features were built to supply power (via water wheel) to the Woolen Mill where Emerson and Cuming is now located. View the USGS map of the Spillway Dam at Neponset St.
This information was provided, in part, by MassHighway, McGinley Hart & Associates and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management.