Without Caledonia Bridges
Leslie T. Richardson- Memories & Other Stories
With the new bypass bridge a current topic the story of other bridges in town should be told for posterity.
Bridges have been and still are vitally important to our community. It seems that spring brings that topic into focus, because of the floods. Caledonia became an incorporated village when the first bridge was built across the river in 1843. It made the town into a single unit. When this bridge collapsed in 1925 there was chaos until temporary arrangements could be made.
Without our bridges Caledonia could easily have become another Indiana or South Seneca, whose businesses died when the original bridges were washed out and never replaced. In the case of Indiana a new bridge was built in Cayuga, thus assuring Cayuga's growth, but with South Seneca, nothing was ever attempted. (Riverboat News July 1969, page 22- 1864- "The Village of Indiana also has the convenience of a bridge across the river. Distance from Cayuga Three miles. Daily Mail Service.)
We can see the effect of the burnt-out bridge over the railroad tracks on Stirling Street is having on the traffic along that route and the difficulties the inhabitants west of that bridge have in getting to town. They have to go a long way round. With the new bypass route they will have further complications. These may all be cleared up in the near future if the bridge is restored.
I believe the very first bridge in Caledonia was the one over the Stoney Creek (Black Creek) then used as a mill race, in Seneca Village (The only mention i have of it is in Harrison Arrell's papers, page 9 "The mill race crossed the road, a bridge being built over it.") It must have been a very important bridge as it joined the tow-road from Sims Locks and York to that through the territory later known as Caledonia. This bridge could have been built of wood by the Grand River Navigation Company around the year 1833 when the Number 4 dam and bridge was started across the river at that point.
There was considerable traffic over this small bridge as North Seneca was quite a busy port, having saw and grist mills, stores, the Post Office, a school, hotels, the cemetery and even a Wesleyan Methodist Church on King William Street in 1844. The community thrived until the dam and bridge went out in the destructive flood of 1861.
I presume that the first Seneca bridge was a wooden swing bridge, which allowed the boats to come in and out of the Creek, similar to that found at York, at that time. When the water fell with the loss of Dam No. 4 and the industries departed, the swing bridge was no longer needed as such, and so it was fixed in a stationary position allowing the traffic to flow east and west on what was called Hamilton Street in those days (now Caithness St. East), as the main traffic led to the Plank Road and on to Hamilton.
In time the wooden bridge rotted out and was replaced by an iron structure which still crosses the creek just south of the present bridge. Once again, as I have no positive proof, I am presuming that the iron work was fabricated in the Scott Foundry (built 1858) because of the type of rod iron used, and was built about the time the one in Caledonia was built. It is still in good repair, but is too narrow for today's traffic.
The present bridge, which is on higher ground and is much wider was built when the river road was widened in the 1950s. Today, even it could be wider as traffic keeps increasing.
