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It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Pharmasave Huntsville!
Huntsville’s newly refurbished swing bridge reopened this week. The bridge is shown here ca. 1950 at a time when it still swung to allow boats through – you can see the arms at either end that were used to stop traffic.
Way back on Feb, 20. 1888, the Department of Public Works notified the citizens of Huntsville that it would be reconstructing the bridge over the Muskoka River: would they prefer a fixed or a swing bridge? Ratepayers first chose the least expensive option – a fixed bridge – but changed their minds a month later. The bridge was ready in time for the 1889 navigation season, with Joseph Hopkins hired to swing, clean and care for the bridge. His wage: $60 per year.
By 1890, taxpayers were already lamenting the additional costs required to maintain the bridge swinger. A strongly worded resolution passed by council about the burden of the bridge got no attention from Queen’s Park. In 1891, they decided to build a watch box on the bridge for the comfort of the bridge keeper.
In 1902, the bridge was replaced with a new 20-foot-wide steel version, wide enough to accommodate two teams, and by 1904 town council once again raised the cost of the bridge with the provincial government: it was hardly fair for Huntsville to carry the full cost of maintenance when it was used by municipalities to both the north and south. The province agreed and assumed responsibility for it in June 1904. George Selkirk was the bridge turner at that time. He remained until 1914 when he retired at the age of 88, to be replaced by Thomas Bradley.
The bridge was replaced again in 1938. By 1931 it had been deemed difficult to operate and unsafe for heavy traffic. The new bridge was 30-feet wide with a sidewalk on either side and due to its size was electrically operated. Steamships stopped travelling the river in 1958 and the swinging mechanism on the bridge was later dismantled.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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It has been a good number of years since our ‘swing bridge’ has swung.
On the wall of the dining room in Dr. Caven’s cottage at Clovelly on the Lake of Bays, there was a large wall map of the Muskoka area. In the center of it all, there was a huge red arrow pointing to where the name Huntsville was painted out and over written with the word “HELL” When I worked there with my father, I finally asked the old gentleman why our town was named Hell.
Main Street was highway 11, the road north and south and every car and truck travelled that route through town. He told me of being trapped in Huntsville, part of a traffic jam extending miles in both directions, because the gears had disengaged or something was jammed.
“All the fumes and smoke and heat , trapped in the street of that little town and I seemed to picture hell” he told me.
Mr. Vernon Cottrill told me of the company tug ‘Jenny C.’ travelling to Hoodstown to pick up a car that the mill had purchased. A slow start and heavy water traffic left the tug, barge and car late back to the town dock and swing bridge, well after the Algonquin was berthed for the night and the bridge master away home. But he was fetched back and opened the bridge to allow the Jenny C. through. It seems he hadn’t been alerted to the fact that there was a barge and car to follow. As soon as the tug was clear, he started to swing the bridge closed. The bridge caught the old car and knocked it from its’ perch on the barge.
That was in the days when the bridge actually could and did swing and I now find it odd that we still talk about it as a swing bridge; now that it doesn’t and can’t.
I guess it’s habit or nostalgic or tradition.