Excerpt:
The Berlin Iron Bridge Company was Connecticut's only large-scale fabricator of metal-truss bridges in the 19th century. Some 400 employees worked at its East Berlin plant, and hundreds of others worked in the field erecting the bridges. Over 1,000 Berlin bridges are believed to have been built before 1900. Most were in the Northeast, but even today Berlin bridges survive as far away as Texas. The company mostly built small-town highway bridges using its patented lenticular or parabolic truss. However, the Berlin Iron Bridge Company was prepared to take on any kind of fabrication work, including multiple-span city bridges, suspension bridges, drawbridges, and railroad bridges.
Hundreds of Berlin bridges were built in the company's home state of Connecticut. As of this date (August, 2001) only 13 highway bridges, 2 railroad bridges, and 2 millyard bridges are known to have survived.
Annotation:
Fabricator of metal-truss bridges in the 19th century. Features history, the Company's patented lenticular truss, and list of remaining Berlin bridges in Connecticut.