Needham History: Echo Bridge

A rare view by a famous photographer.

The JW Black stereo view of Echo Bridge under construction, showing the timber-framed arch supports and the huge granite building blocks.

Echo Bridge

Another excellent donation to write about this week! This is a stereo view of Echo Bridge under construction, given to us by a long-time friend who specializes in stereo photo views. The image shows construction of the smaller arches on the northeastern (Newton) side of Echo Bridge, as seen from the Needham perspective.

Echo Bridge is now a scenic feature of the Hemlock Gorge Reservation. Hemlock Gorge is now a MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR, formerly MDC) state park. It is 23 acres in size, bounded by Route 9 on the Wellesley side, and Central Avenue/Elliot Street on the Needham/Newton side. It is considered an “urban wild” area, crossed by several miles of walking trails with scenic views. Before it was a park, Hemlock Gorge had been in continuous use – for fishing, for industry, and most recently, for recreation – for millennia. Unlike most of the Charles, which tends to be level and sluggish, the Gorge is relatively steep, and active enough to power the small industries that clustered around its banks in the 18th and 19th centuries. And before the English settlers built mills, the Gorge’s narrow and rapid channels were prime fishing grounds for Native Americans, who had lived here for thousands of years. It was a famously-good spot for trapping migratory fish (herring, alewife, and shad). The spring fish runs were so abundant, that the fish could be netted or scooped up in baskets.

Echo Bridge itself creates a path between the two sides of the park and has a lane at the top for walking across and for enjoying the excellent view. That, of course, is not why it was built. The Bridge was constructed in 1876-1877 as a part of the Sudbury Aqueduct system, bringing water from Lake Cochituate to Boston. It cost $200,000 to build (around $5.5M today – still a bargain!)

Although the main arch over the Charles River is the one we see most often, the bridge actually has seven (nine?) arches supporting its length along both banks (accounts differ). The main arch has a span of 137 feet, and is one of the largest stone arches in the world; it stands 51 feet above the average water surface. The smaller arches span around 37 feet, based on footings of granite. At the base of the main arch on the Newton side is the Echo Platform, which gives the bridge its name. It is said that a human voice will echo up to 15 times, and a pistol shot up to 25 (do NOT try this yourself!)

Yet despite its beauty and the fun of shooting pistols, the bridge is a working structure. Inside the bridge is its most important feature, a conduit about nine feet wide and eight high to carry water from the Sudbury Aqueduct to Boston. The conduit had a slope of one foot per mile, and a maximum capacity of 80,000,000 gallons per day. There are access points along its 16-mile length for maintenance and inspection. According to King’s Handbook of Newton, these access manholes are fitted with ladders, and there were number plates at regular intervals to identify specific locations at need. Rowboats tethered at either end allowed inspectors to travel the length of the conduit.

Side-by-side view showing the arches under construction in 1876, and the same arches as completed, c.1960.

Echo Bridge is no longer in use as part of the regular MWRA water system, but it is maintained in good condition as part of the emergency backup system. It was used as recently as 2010 to carry water when part of the MWRA network failed and needed repairs. In 1980 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1981 it was designated an American Water Landmark.

The view in our photo shows the construction of the five smaller arches on the Newton side of the river. It was taken by James Wallace Black & Co.; the mark, “Black & Co,” is embossed on the lower right margin. The image is inscribed on the back – “No. 6. Sudbury River Conduit, B.W.W. Dir. 4. Sec. 15. View from Needham side. Aug. 17, 1876.” BWW is Boston Water Works, the firm that was building the bridge. The photo is a stereo view – meant to be viewed through a device known as a stereopticon (like an old-style ViewMaster) that allowed the side-by-side images to merge into a 3D view.

J. W. Black was an important American photographer. He was born in New Hampshire in 1825, was orphaned young, and drifted down to Massachusetts. In 1850 he became the apprentice, and later partner, of Boston photographer John Adams Whipple. Black later worked with other photographers, and eventually opened his own studio in Boston as Black & Company. Black is best known for his pioneering work with aerial photography from tethered balloons, for his portraits of abolitionist John Brown and poet Walt Whitman, and for the album of photos he took of the Great Boston Fire of 1872.

In the photo, you can just see the semi-circular wooden frameworks that formed and supported the first course of masonry. This was a standard means of building a stone arch, and the History Center has photos of the construction of other bridges in Needham with similar timber-braced arch supports. (I was also delighted to see that this method was still in use during the renovations of the 1857 Cook’s Bridge on Central Avenue (Needham to Upper Falls) a few years ago!) The men are standing on what looks like the start of the footings for the main arch, and along that scary catwalk of timbers that spans the river. They also provide some scale for the size of the huge granite blocks used to build the bridge and those cranes do not look nearly hefty enough to raise them, but clearly were. The photo was taken from what would become the Needham end of the bridge, or from a raised structure along the catwalk (yikes!) – someone who knows more than I about 19th-century camera lens capabilities should let me know.

I am also curious about the context of the photo. Although “in-progress” photos are not rare, they are also much less common, especially for scenic photographers, than bucolic finished views. J.W. Black (and many others) have taken pictures of the finished bridge, but Black also seems to have taken several views of the bridge in the process of building, including some pretty arcane structural details. This, and the technical nature of the inscription on the back (“B.W.W. Dir. 4. Sec. 15”) suggests that these might have been commissioned by the Water Works itself rather than as a series for public sale.

For every answer, a new question!

A view of the main span, looking toward the mills and falls on the Needham side, circa 1890. Some of the smaller arches are visible to the left, though in most views they are hidden by the terrain and vegetation.

Gloria Polizzotti Greis is the Executive Director of the Needham History Center & Museum. For more information, please see their website at www.needhamhistory.org.