Piece of Woronoco History, the Bridge Street Bridge was closed by MassDOT to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic in 1985. This historic open-spandrel, rib-arch was built in 1924 and is one of the few examples of this rare bridge type that remain. It is an arch bridge with a total length of 400 feet, consisting of two 65 foot approach spans and three arch spans which are approximately 104 feet, 62 feet, and 104 feet, respectively. At this crossing, the Westfield River is in a rocky gorge approximately 50 feet below the bridge’s deck. The bridge’s middle piers are located on an island in the middle of the river.
There are two natural cauldrons just above the actual falls that act like a giant rock tumbler.Rocks of all different sizes get trapped in there and get naturally tumbled.They may not be perfectly round (although some are) but they all are smooth as long as they have been there for a while.I spent many a summer day swimming there with the Woronoco gang.That pool below the falls was also a good place to fish because it was very deep with shaded areas.The down side was getting caught there by a wise guy on the bridge who would throw rocks or sand on you until you could take cover.Jimmy Mc Donald had a 49-50 Ford that was so far out of alignment that it took up most of the road coming over the bridge. My father (who was hard of hearing) was walking over the bridge during the war years. He thought he could hear something but couldn’t identify what it was.Suddenly a fighter plane came wipping over the bridge so close that he thought it would knock his hat off. They were practicing low-below radar flying up the valley. If it weren’t for the lower steam pipe crossing they probably would have flown under the bridge.