Boston & Providence Railroad, Canton Viaduct, Neponset Street at East branch of Neponset River, Canton, Norfolk County, MA. Surveyed as HAER MASS,11-CANT,2-, with 1 photograph and a 447-word written history.
“The Canton Viaduct is a granite structure 615 feet in length, 22 feet in width, and 70 feet above the surface of the Neponset River's East Branch.”
Written record, HAER MASS,11-CANT,2- survey. Machine-read text.
surveyed by the federal HAER program as HAER MASS,11-CANT,2- · the record runs 447 words · one of 94 surveyed structures published for this county.
1 photograph from the federal survey record, Library of Congress.
Source document Quoted word for word from HAER MASS,11-CANT,2-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.
The Canton Viaduct is a granite structure 615 feet in length, 22 feet in width, and 70 feet above the surface of the Neponset River's East Branch. The viaduct was the principal structure on the Boston & Providence's route, and the last to be completed, opening on July 28, The Hayward's Gazeteer of 184 5 noted that the structure was "conceeded the most elegant and massive structure of masonry in the United States." Engineer for the railroad and the viaduct was Capt. William Gibbs McNeill The earliest proposals for the line included inclined planes but an accident on the Granite Railway's plane before work had commenced convinced the railroad of the viaduct's utility.
Although a local quarry in Canton supplied foundation stone, Rattlesnake Hill in Sharon supplied most of the finish stonework, much of it displaying stonecutters' marks. The structure is not solid, but is composed of two parallel walls, each five feet thick, separated by an air space of nine feet. At the base of the viaduct, six rounded arches of 8 feet 4 inches in span allow the East Branch to pass beneath, while a town road passes through a larger 22-1/2-foot arch. A second track was Boston & Providence Railroad: Canton Viaduct HAER No. MA-27 (Page 2) laid on the viaduct in I86 0, and in the New York, New Haven & Harjord Railroad, after repeated expressions of concern for safety on the narrow structure, widened the roadbed by cantilevering out the necessary width.
In a second road arch was cut through the structure. References: Harlow, Alvin F. , Steelways of New England [New York: Creative Age Press, 194 6], 10 5, "Improving a Granite Viaduct," Engineering Record 10 Sept. Sharon, Massachusetts A History [Sharon, MA; Sharon American Revolution Bicentennial Committee, Transmitted by Jean P. Yearby, from data compiled by Peter Stott # ADDENDUM TO HAER No. MA-27 BOSTON AND PROVIDENCE RAILROAD, CANTON VIADDCT f/fif R Neponset Street at East Branch of Neponset River 4 ,' Canton M >, Norfolk County //-C/9A-T, Massachusetts -> XEROGRAPHIC COPIES OF COLOR TRANSPARENCIES HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Washington,
| Canton, Massachusetts | The place record: every map, photograph and survey of this town. |
| Norfolk County, Massachusetts | 278 topographic sheets across the county. |
| Library of Congress record | The original filed report, and the sheets the survey produced. Those published here appear above. |
The federal surveyors worked through Canton building by building. These are the other structures they measured and filed a report on, longest report first.
| Sheet | Structure | Survey | Report |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Milestones L | HABS MASS,11-CANT,1- | 28 words |
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