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"Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge was built in 1886 for the Town of Canajoharie, New York by Melvin A. Nash, a Fort Edward, New York bridge builder. It is the only extant example of superstructure fabricated on the 1873 patent of civil engineer William B. Cooper, then employed on the New York State Canals. In 1975, the bridge was acquired by the Central New York State Park and Recreation Commission and moved to the Old Erie Canal State Park in De Witt, where it now carries pedestrians and service vehicles across a restored portion of the original canal. ... His [Cooper's] design was one of a variety of trusses of the bowstring and tied arch forms widely used for small highway and street crossings during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The configuration of its trusses places it in a direct line of descendance from the arched trusses of New York engineer and inventor Squire Whipple, whose design was used for many years as a canal standard.."

"Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge consists of a pair of unbraced, cast- and wrought-iron bowstring trusses seated on reinforced concrete abutments faced with coarse ashlar limestone. The bridge's superstructure is 61'-9" in overall length with a clear span of approximately 59', measured between abutment faces at the seats. The deck is approximately 16' above the water and 9-1/2' above the single towpath that parallels the canal's north bank."

-- William P. Chamberlain, historian (1994), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER No. NY-291)

For more detailed information, search The American Memory Project, Built in America section, and search NY-291.

Click on an image below to see the full-size version.
The entrance sign at Cedar Bay Picnic Area.	Cedar Bay interpretive sign: Canal Structures Along the Trail.	Detail of Cedar Bay interpretive sign: Whipple truss bridge.

Pictures from The Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. NY-291 (1994)
Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge -- 1994, Cast & Wrought Iron Bridges Recording Project, New York Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. NY-291 -- Sheet 1 of 3.	Elevation, looking southeast -- Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge.	Perspective view, looking northwest -- Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge.	Detail of lower chord, northeast abutment -- Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge.
Pictures taken in September 2007
The west side of Cooper's Tubular Arch Bridge, looking southeast.	The east side of the bridge, looking southwest.	Underside of the bridge, looking south.	Detail of the west side of the bridge, looking north.