By Maury Thompson
There was a lobbying battle between Essex County cultural heritage tourism enthusiasts a century ago as officials in New York and Vermont discussed construction a bridge across Lake Champlain.
The impetus, at the time, was to boost tourism.
“Keen interest is manifested in New York state along Lake Champlain in the proposed bridge across the lake at some feasible point to connect New York and Vermont for the benefit of tourists,” The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported on Jan. 8, 1925.
More than 100 prominent Port Henry citizens had recently held a banquet to brainstorm a lobbying strategy to locate the bridge at Crown Point, by Fort Saint Frederick, where it was eventually constructed.
Meanwhile, “a number of influential New Yorkers” were lobbying for the bridge to be constructed at Larrabee’s Point, near Fort Ticonderoga, following an abandoned former rail route.
“S. M. P. Pell, owner of Fort Ticonderoga, is greatly interested in this project and is reported to be in touch with several New York senators.”
Vermont Gov. Redfield Proctor had appointed a commission to evaluate proposals for the new bridge.
“Senator Mortimer Ferris of Ticonderoga is most optimistic in regard to the proposition of erecting a bridge over Lake Champlain.”
The United Commercial Travelers of New York State, an organization of traveling salesmen, endorsed constructing a bridge across Lake Champlain, the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on Jan. 22.
New York State Engineer Roy G. Finch endorsed constructing a bridge across Lake Champlain, the Sentinel reported on Feb. 12.
“Finch’s support is based on the value the new bridge would have on creating an interstate highway to connect the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks for the convenience of trucks and tourists.”
The state Assembly authorized establishing a committee and spending up to $5,000 — the equivalent of $90,140 in 2024 dollars — to study, in cooperation with Vermont, the feasibility of constructing a bridge across Lake Champlain, the Sentinel reported on Feb. 19.
There was still controversy about where the bridge should be located.
“It appears that the Vermont resolution is more or less tied up with a railroad bridge at the northern end of Lake Champlain. It proposes a full bridge alongside of the railway structure. … “Senator Ferris (of Ticonderoga) had an aeroplane photo on his desk Monday in the vicinity of Fort Ticonderoga, showing the present abandoned bridge at that point, and emphasizing the ease with which a draw span could be inserted and the bridge made over it.”
Top photo: Lake Champlain bridge in Crown Point. Alex Scrodin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Travelled over that bridge many times in my teens and early twenties. Sometimes
just to go to Burlington for an ice cream cone. The new bridge is beautiful and probably a smart idea although I miss the old one.