Days of the Railroad

Posted 1/21/16

To the Editor:

The Lifestyle story in the Dec. 29 issue, “All aboard for a glimpse of RI’s many railroads,” brought to my mind all the many years of living next to the railroad …

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Days of the Railroad

Posted

To the Editor:

The Lifestyle story in the Dec. 29 issue, “All aboard for a glimpse of RI’s many railroads,” brought to my mind all the many years of living next to the railroad in the Greenwood section. I’m just over the line – in the Greenwood “improper” neighborhood. My grandfather, Herbert Smith, worked for the Stonington Railroad, now the same rail as Amtrak. In 1897, he built a house for his family that my wife and family have lived in for many years at the Greenwood Bridge. 

I grew up on, under and around the bridge from the 1940s. Post Road led travelers through Rhode Island from points north and down into Connecticut. The Greenwood Inn still feeds and makes comfortable passers-by now as it did when the stagecoach stopped on its way to LittleRest (Wakefield). But the restless country needed faster ways. So in the mid-1800s, a railroad was begun from Boston to Providence and so named. 

Many of us know the portrait “Whistler’s Mother” by her son, James, but are unaware of the important part his father, George Washington Whistler, played in Rhode Island rail. The elder Whistler graduated in 1819 from the U.S. Military Academy. He was, for most of his Army career, involved in topographical duties (he was supposedly the first to use elevation contour lines on maps). He resigned n 1833 and took his Army experience as a rail engineer to Lowell, Mass., as chief engineer at Locks and Canals, during which he designed locomotives.

Through a new position with B & O railroad, he was sent to England to learn more about railroads. In 1835 he designed the Boston & Providence Railroad, which necessitated what now seems to be a New England wonder – the Canton Viaduct. This classic monster has been carrying freight and passengers continuously for 180 years. He went on to be involved in the Stonington and other rail lines. In 1842 he was hired as a consultant in the Moscow to Saint Petersburg Railway. His contribution there was laying a 5-foot gauge still used. He died there of illness. 

The new bridge says it’s number 2. But don’t believe it. I have a photo of bridge number 2 from the early 1900s and in the background is the framework of bridge number 1. The new bridge (which I call an overpass) should be number 4. 

For some nice old photos of the Greenwood Bridge and Apponaug go to the Coutu Family website.

David Cole Matteson Sr.

Warwick

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  • dickcoutu

    I am the author of the Coutu Family website. The URL address is: http://www.http://coutufamilypages.com.

    Friday, January 22, 2016 Report this

  • dickcoutu

    Oops! Correction to the URL address should be: http://www.coutufamilypages.com.

    Friday, January 22, 2016 Report this