Item 26649 - Lower Toll Bridge, Thomaston, ca. 1950

Item 26649 - Lower Toll Bridge, Thomaston, ca. 1950
Contributed by Thomaston Historical Society
Item 26649
Lower Toll Bridge, Thomaston, ca. 1950
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In 1818 a toll bridge was built by Abel Hildreth in Thomaston at the foot of Wadsworth Street. It was referred to as the lower toll bridge to differentiate it from a second bridge near the Thomaston/Warren line to the north called the upper toll bridge.

Before the bridge was built a ferry transported passengers and cargo across the Georges River to Watson’s Point, where a road led to Cushing. A tollhouse was built on the west side of the bridge where the first toll keeper, Zephaniah Everton, lived and collected tolls.

The wooden bridge was replaced by an operational opening bridge but today the raising gear is gone and the roadbed is fixed in place.

The prison sits on the top of Limestone Hill on the left. The Dunn and Elliot Company store is the first building at the bottom of Wadsworth Street after crossing the bridge over the Georges River.

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