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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This bridge, constructed in 1877, was the seventh bridge to span the Connecticut River at Sunderland, Massachusetts. The six previous bridges were built and financed by groups of private investors. These investors charged tolls to maintain the bridge and hopefully, turn a profit. Unlike its wooden predecessors, this steel girder bridge was financed not through tolls, but by the towns of Sunderland, Deerfield, and Whately, as well as by Franklin County. The bridge pictured here stood until the devastating flood of 1936, when the Montague City bridge tore loose and floated downstream, crashing into and destroying the Sunderland bridge.

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