Booklet offers a bridge to the past

LACONIA —  Several of the city's bridges have been recently replaced, or are scheduled to be in the near future, such as the bridge over Centenary Avenue. There are more than 25 bridges throughout the city, whose residents rely on them to navigate numerous water bodies, highways and railway lines.

The City of Laconia, in collaboration with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New Hampshire State Preservation Office, published an interesting guidebook to the city’s bridges three years ago. It’s about time for a review.

“Bridges to the Past: A Guide to the Historic Bridges of Laconia” is available on the city’s website or to view in person at Laconia Public Library.

The guidebook includes detailed information and old photographs of bridges spanning the various areas of the city.

Less than half of the existing bridges are considered historic — older than 50 years.

Bridges can be found all over the city. Waterways are a defining feature of Laconia, of course, as the city extends between lakes Winnipesaukee and Winnisquam and along the Winnipesaukee River. The river flows through both Paugus Bay and Lake Opechee and the city’s drinking water comes from Paugus Bay.

According to the booklet, harnessing the power of water was one feature which attracted settlers during the Colonial period in the 1700s and contributed to an explosion of industrialization in the 1800s. The geography of the area, though beneficial because of its many lakes and waterfalls, required numerous bridges. Early bridges were made of timber. 

There’s seven bridges in and around downtown: four on the roads; two on the railroad; and one foot bridge. The earliest bridge was apparently constructed in 1764, near where the Main Street Bridge stands today.

The first bridge in Lakeport was built in 1782 on Gold Street and, at the time, was known as Folsom’s Bridge, in reference to the owner of a nearby mill. A new dam raised the water level in the middle 1800s, necessitating a higher crossing. Another crossing was built in 1870 at Elm Street.

Weirs Beach, today a major summer tourism area, received visitors by rail dating back to the late 1800s. Historic bridges over the Weirs Channel included one wooden bridge and two steel bridges which predated the modern bridge over Route 3, built in 1933.

The Weirs Channel Bridge replaced earlier bridges in about the same location. A bridge was built there between 1803 and 1804, and in the 1830s, a raised bridge was built to allow steamboats clear passage. Laconia built another bridge in 1883, but that one wasn’t robust enough to handle electric streetcars, so a replacement was built in 1899. 

The historic bridge booklet includes detailed information regarding other old bridges in the city, such as that over Centenary Avenue, a pedestrian bridge over the scenic railway built in 1917, the Route 3 bridge over the same, another constructed over Langley Brook in 1899 and again in 1933 and yet others.