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Date: 4/20/2021
LEEDS – During the Northampton City Council’s April 1 meeting, the council unanimously approved an appropriation of $500,000 for repairs to the Leeds Hotel Bridge, which has been out of commission for pedestrian traffic since 2013.
Leeds Civic Association (LCA) Vice President Jason Johnson said there have been efforts to restore the bridge ever since it was closed to vehicular traffic in 2004.
“The bridge was closed to vehicular access in 2004, but I think from even preceding that there was an effort to get some repairs done. The main impudence came after it was closed to vehicular transportation in 2004 and then closed to pedestrian traffic in 2013,” he said.
While the village was outraged when the bridge initially shut down, LCA President Penny Geis said she went to the bridge to see why it was closed and was convinced when a piece of metal broke off in her hands.
“That morning we got the news the village was an uproar, so I went down to the bridge and found [a] hole in the tar with rusted metal underneath supporting me, and I reached down with just my thumb and forefinger and the metal came right off in my hand and realized it was not safe for us to be on,” she said.
Geis added that the bridge is an important symbol in Leeds’ history from when it was built all the way up to its closure.
“It is a really important part of Leeds; it is part of our history. Water Street was where the mill workers lived, and the bridge was built so people could come across the river for work. In recent years it was a center of community activity. There were parties on the bridge, and it is a really important symbolic part of the village,” she said.
While she has only lived in Leeds since 2012, LCA Treasurer Karyn Johnson said she was immediately captivated by the historical aesthetic of the bridge and the village.
“I moved here in 2012 and I did not know any of the history of Leeds, within a week I completely fell in love with the river, the old factory buildings, the old mill buildings, and then the bridge was just amazing because it’s an 1880s bridge. Standing on that bridge looking at the river and the mill buildings, you get the sense of a different time,” she said.
Nelson said once the bridge has been restored, she hopes it is added to the education curriculum.
“With the school nearby, it will be great experiential learning for the kids to come down. We did a project a couple years ago with Historic Signs, that kind of promotes the history of Leeds, but to have the bridge open and for the teachers to add that to the curriculum would be great too,” she said.
While the project has taken years to get off the ground, Geis said it shows how important the bridge is to residents.
“It’s sad that it has taken this long, but that tells you something about how important it is to people,” she said.
With funding secured, Nelson said the LCA is waiting on a presentation from the engineering firm and will eventually host a party once construction is done.
“We are hoping to get a presentation from the engineering firm that put together the repairs to get an idea of the scope of the work, and once it is open, I think we are going to have a big party on the bridge,” she said.
Initially, Nelson said the price tag for restoring vehicular transportation was high before Department of Public Works Director Donna LaScaleia narrowed the scope of work down to pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
“The engineering firm had done a study years ago and they had looked at it for opening it to vehicles and the price tag was quite high for that. When Director LaScaleia was able to drill down the scope of the work to pedestrians and bikes, she was able to get a firm to come up with what that would entail and that is why the price tag is lower than the initial report,” she said.