High Bridge
New Ipswich Historical Society
Views of high bridge from the river
On this day - February 28, 1898
William Jurian Kaula diary
28 FEB 1898
The boys will keep on getting drunk and I am well nigh tired of it. If they would only keep away from our studio after going on their sprees I would not care. To have a drunken man sleep on the floor in my studio beside my bed is too mcuh for me. I will take care that next winter I will be away from the crowd, or at a respectable distance. I would prefer to have a studio alone if I can afford it and not be bothered by anyone. It has been a dissipated crowd of fellows this winter and as for art or what has been accomplished there is not much to show. It is not easy to argue the matter with any of them as they all declare that is has not interfered with their work in the least. I know better from what I see as an outsider. I shall miss little if I cut them all next winter. At any rate I shall not go away with any of them this summer.
My schoolwork goes on fairly well and Collin gives me some good hints. The class is small and no better than before. The Jap is a scholarship man from Japan and Collin said that when he came to Paris he hired a place and began to paint battle pictures which he could do anywhere. As he was sent to Collin as his pupil, Collin found that he was very much in need of an ordinary school training and told him to go into the class. He can draw very well - better than most of the Frenchmen in the class.
On this day - February 28 & 29, 1909
James Roger diary entries (leap year)
28th (Friday)
Hard frost – fine bright day wind north to west. David at Mason with Dill Hudson for wood – home at 4 pm and Jim and him brought home a load of wood. Shelled some corn in afternoon. Grange Committee washing up in afternoon at Grange last night. There was 40 present 9 strangers. Discussion on Town Warrant during the evening. Brown and Bros. took away the cow today.
29th (Saturday)
Hard frost (24 degrees) David at Mason for wood for Walker. I cleaned Hall for Finn dance. And swept Church and vestibules also lit furnace. Got letter from Alice also PC from Hamish.
Nice photos of the bridge. If you look carefully at the top you'll see a rock that jutts out from the rest. An old timer told me that one of the male residents of Highbridge (he named him but I've forgotten his name) would jump off this rock into the water below. I was tempted to try but never did. I wonder if that rock was intentionally placed in order to be a jumping off point.
One write-up I read states that the bridge cost $2400 to build in 1817. According to the 'official data' site this is $57000 in today's $. When I made some rough calculations using granite stone and stone mason's labor at $50/sq ft of wall built on level ground with the same amount of stone it would cost $825000. Add making an arch in a gulley 55 ft deep and the cost would be over a million.