Brockville’s St. Paul Street Bridge sees 214 years of service
By Dave Penny
The Shepherd Grist Mill and stone lined raceway viewed from under the arch.
Bridge refurbishment and relining
over waterways can be a
viable alternative that helps
municipalities and highway
departments extend budgets and minimize
the inconvenience and delays of
demolition and new construction. The
City of Brockville has kept the St. Paul
Street Bridge at Buell’s Creek in service
for over 200 years through innovative
engineering.
My involvement with the bridge
started in 1978 when it took its present
form. The bridge was then servicing
the Imperial Oil storage facility, which
was purchased by the City that year.
The then City Engineer, Gord Watts
had the task of bringing the bridge, a
stone arch of eight metre span, up to
current economical highway standards.
He employed consultant, Jake
Thomas of Gananoque, to design a
solution that would meet the City’s
budget.
The answer was to slip line a structural
plate corrugated steel arch inside
the original bridge, grout the space
between the old and new arches and
form concrete headwalls over the
existing stone. The work was completed
in a matter of days by Welter
Construction of Kingston without even
drawing the attention of the local press
or disturbing what is today recognized
as a site of industrial archeological significance.
I returned this year as part of a
Corrugated Steel Pipe Institute project
to review the long performance of corrugated
steel structures. What I found
was a structure in excellent condition
with many more years of service left.
More significantly, I found, where the
oil depot had been, a beautiful park,
with mature trees, historical stone
buildings and millworks. Historical
signage told the story of the site that
was settled in 1784 by United Empire
Loyalists. The signs included an aerial
rendering of the town, dated 1873 that
showed the bridge in its original glory.
With help from the Brockville
Museum, the City of Brockville
Engineering Department and local historian
Doug Grant, I was able to piece
together the history of the bridge. It
would appear that the original bridge
was built just west of today’s structure,
to service Daniel Jones Sawmill (circa
1790) and the Back Pond Gristmill,
built at the bridge a few years later.
Very little is recorded except that
Nehamiah Seaman, whose stone house
is still standing nearby, fell to his death
from the bridge during an ice storm in
March 1830. A Town map, drawn in
March of 1833, suggests that the
bridge may have suffered a similar fate
as Nehamiah, as it slipped under the
icy waters of Buell’s Creek. In an effort
to gain more power for the expanding
mills, the creek, now a millpond, was
much deeper and wider than the original
bridge could manage.
In 1836, Robert Shepherd, a stone
mason by trade, bought and operated
the mills. In 1852 with the help of his
brothers and father, who were also
masons, he built the Shepherd Mill. As
masons, they would be familiar with
stone arch construction and it is presumed
that they rebuilt the St. Paul
Street Bridge and built the Kingston
Road Bridge (circa 1840) as both
crossed their millpond. The bridges are
earthen causeways with a central stone
arch. They are clearly visible in an
1873 aerial rendering.
By 1884, the mills fell into disuse
and the CPR railway bought the land
as a coal transfer, storage facility and
spur line. The millpond was drained to
make way for the rails. Black Brothers
of Brockville were contracted to build
an iron bridge to carry St. Paul Street
up and over the tracks. According to
Brockville Public Works archives,
“Their purpose was putting up as fine
a bridge as they can as an advertisement
for this new branch of their business.”
The Town Architect and designer,
O.E.Liston, indicated that the contract
price of $1,800 was very cheap.
Further good news was that while the
new bridge was being built, in piggyback
fashion above the Buell’s Creek
Arch, traffic flow could be maintained.
Draining the millpond had exposed the
piers for the old bridge where
Nehamiah Seaman had drowned 54
years earlier, making an economical
temporary detour bridge possible.
As coal changed to oil, and railways
gave way to trucks and shipping on the
St. Lawrence Seaway, ownership and
land use changed at the Brockville
docks. The St. Paul Street Bridge was
there to see it all. Its last renovation
took place in 1983 when the 99 year
old wrought iron railway bridge was
demolished, leaving only a beautiful
park and the 164 year old arch over
Buell’s Creek, that I had the pleasure to
help preserve with corrugated steel
pipe 26 years ago.
David J. Penny, BES, is with the
Corrugated Steel Pipe Institute.
Contact e-mail: djpenny@cspi.ca.
See our home page on how to order your subscription. We regret we can
only accept orders from Canada and the United States.
