THOUSAND ISLANDS BRIDGE

75 years of International Goodwill

A special supplement to the Watertown Daily Times, Friday, August 16, 2013

Thousand Islands Bridge

Friday, August 16, 2013

Spirit of goodwill marked dedication

Leaders from U.S., Canada joined hands at border for ceremony
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

It was the first, and so far the only, time the leaders of the two nations joined hands across this border. The day was Aug. 18, 1938. The occasion was the dedication of the Thousand Islands International Bridge, a $3-million project completed in less than two years that linked the United States and Canada, making transborder travel easier than ever before. It was a momentous occasion, witnessed by 25,000 people who gathered to watch President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William L. Mackenzie King pledge everlasting friendship and cooperation between their two nations. It was hailed as the biggest assemblage Northern New York has ever seen. As early as 9 a.m. cars were flocking to a six-acre outdoor amphitheater that had been set up near the International Rift Bridge, the small, stonewalled bridge separating Wellesley Island and the Canadian Hill Island, for the 3 p.m. ceremony. Flags of both countries ... stood as the only physical symbols to indicate that a two-nation population had gathered here, read news accounts of the day.

Harold B. Johnson, then editor and publisher of The Watertown Daily Times, and Edward John Noble had been appointed by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority to greet the president and the prime minister and act as hosts for the days festivities. The roar of honorary gun salutes and sirens heralded the arrival of the presidential motorcade at the Rift. The car bearing the two heads of state stopped at the tiny stone Rift Bridge and they both cut a ribbon held by one Canadian and one U.S. Army sergeant. As pieces of the ribbon floated to the ground, the crowd scram bled forward to grab the tatters. The official motorcade, consisting of 50 cars, proceeded through the crush to the speakers stand, where dignitaries from both sides of the border waited. Among them was New York State Lt. Gov. M. William Bray, speaking on behalf of Gov. Herbert H. Lehman, who was unable to attend the ceremony because of a knee injury.

another, not in enmities or in armaments, but in devotion to the ways of peace and the spirit of conciliation. This Thousand Islands Bridge serves to emphasize and, we cannot doubt, will enhance through the years, the inheritance of commerce and culture shared by the people on either bank of the St. Lawrencenot one people, but two. At the start of his address, President Roosevelt was supposed to greet Mr. King by saying, Mr. Prime Minister. However, in the spirit of friendliness and goodwill that characterized the day, the President discarded that greeting in favor of my fellow bridge builder, much to the delight of the crowd. Here a boundary is a gateway and not a wall, President Roosevelt said. Between these islands an international gap, never wide, has been spanned, as gaps usually are, by the exercise of ability, guided by common sense.

would take place less than 20 years later. On their way to the stand, as well as on their way to Clayton to catch a train, the two national leaders paused often to shake hands with spectators who constantly crushed in around them. The crowds flooded the roadway as soon as the speeches were over, and it took more than 20 minutes to get the presidential party out of the elated masses.

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FDR BOOSTS SEAWAY IDEA

SPIRIT OF GOODWILL

LEADERS MET IN KINGSTON

Earlier in the day President Roosevelt had traveled to Kingston, Ont., to receive an honorary degree from Queens University. He traveled to the border in a car with Mr. King.

It is a joy to me to be able to join with the President this afternoon in drawing to the attention of citizens of other lands, as well as our own, the wide significance of todays proceedings, and much that is symbolized by the new structure, said Mr. King. This bridge is a symbol in international amity, he said. It constitutes yet another of the many bonds which join two peoples who rival one

Mr. Roosevelt also did not pass up the opportunity to express his interest in the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The crowd roared with thunderous approval as the president said, I look forward to the day when a Canadian prime minister and an American president can meet and dedicate, not a bridge across this water, but the very water itself, to the lasting and productive use of their respective peoples. Little did he know that occasion

Fifty New York State troopers, as well as numerous other law enforcement officers, used motorcycles and horses to try to control the crowd. It was called an innovation in traffic direction when U.S. Immigration turned over its short-wave radio system to the police because telephone communication was not possible. A survey of license plates showed there were vehicles from coast to coast at the ceremony. And all were more than willing to shell out $1.25 to cross the bridge that very first day. Everyone paid tribute to the bridge in his own way that day. But Rev. John L. Plunkett, pastor of St. Patricks Church, Watertown, blessed the structure. Grant that it may stand as a lasting memorial, not alone to the achievements of architectural and engineering skill, but what is more, to the accomplishments of peace, emphasizing the fact that men on this continent can and do live in unity and harmony, not in armed neutrality.

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Thousand Islands Bridge

A construction crew works to surface the deck of the Thousand Islands Bridge in preparation for its opening in 1938. The project consumed a massive amount of materials during its 18-month construction.

PHOTO COURTESY TIBA

Thousand Islands Bridge: A Mountain of Materials

Building the Thousand Islands Bridge was no small affair by any account. Bridge authorities report that construction of the $3,050,000 structure, from the April 30, 1937, groundbreaking to the Aug. 18, 1938, ribboncutting, required the following: n 7,000 tons of structural steel

n 550 tons of steel wire cable n 21,000 cubic yards of re-enforced concrete masonry n 16,098 feet of new connecting highway on the Ontario mainland n 37 pre-stressed wire rope strands, 1 1/4-inches in diameter each, inside the main cable n 2,000 workers n 484 tons of cable n 504,000 Man-hours of labor

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Thousand Islands Bridge

Friday, August 16, 2013

NORM JOHNSTON n WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

TIBA: KEEPING THE WHEELS TURNING

As bridge turns 75, Authority Director Robert Horr III looks ahead
along, we became a conduit to other places. Prior to that, the authority had been very active in creating a 1000 Islands Council to promote the islands because they needed traffic. The commercial side didnt take off until the North American Free Trade Act. It was mostly local until then. Our high year for commercial traffic was 2000 or 2001 with 540,000 trucks coming through. Right now were just under 400,000. Thats the result of the economy and currency exchange. Commercial traffic exploded here in the 90s as a result of NAFTA and we became a very important gateway for commercial traffic. After 9/11, I was at a meeting in Detroit with various bridge operators and they were talking about the impact on the auto industry in Detroit. They said any delay at the border costs them a million dollars a minute. That gave us a better idea of the importance of making sure our border crossings, bridges and tunnels are efficiently run and of working with both governments to make them as efficient as possible. WDT: How involved are you with border issues? HORR: Whats happening with the border is probably the hardest thing weve had to deal with in the last 12 years. Were unique because the border is in the middle of our systemwhat happens in the middle directly affects what happens in the end. I spend a tremendous amount of my time working on border issues because what happens there will affect my business and affect it negatively quickly. When talk surfaces with Homeland Security about charging Canadians to come into the U.S., you have to beat it with a stick. Customs has a very different mission than we do ours is to move traffic, theirs is to inspect traffic. Its a relationship that has different and opposing ends and we all recognize that we have to work together. Creating those relationships and keeping those relationships going is extremely important. WDT: How big of a game changer was 9/11? HORR: We were fortunate here that the border never actually closed. I knew immediately that the pendulum was going to swing and that it was going to swing a long way. And it did. Thereve been a number of programs introduced over the years, most of which didnt necessarily help what was happening it was more about enforcement than efficiently moving traffic. I think thats come full circle now. Theyve instituted a lot of programs that really make sense. I can say today that the border is more efficient than it was prior to 9/11. Thats my gauge of improvement. I think if you talked to customs in both countries theyd tell you theyre get-

hen the Thousand Islands Bridge opened to traffic in 1938, connecting Northern New York to Canada, the nations interstates were still years away and the country was mired in the Great Depression. In its first year, the bridge saw roughly 94,000 vehicle crossings. Some 75 years later, annual vehicle traffic tops 2 million and the agency that operates the bridge Thousand Islands Bridge Authority also manages Boldt Castle. We sat down with TIBA Director Robert G. Horr III to learn how things have changed.

WDT: How important is the bridge to the region and to the economy? HORR: First and foremost, for passenger traffic, the 1000 Islands represents a destination itself for a lot of people, but its also a way into the U.S. to other parts for a lot of people. When the Interstate and the 401 came

Friday, August 16, 2013

ting more information, theyre more prepared, they have better training and theyre funded more than they used to be. WDT: How have these preparations changed? HORR: We were always prepared for accidents, being in the traffic business you expect that, whether its collisions, fires or vandalism. We still have that, but now we have the added component of securing the facilities against terrorism, domestic or otherwise. Being an economic gateway, were probably on someones list somewhere. We undertook a very robust security installation here in 2006. Were now protecting key components of the system that we didnt before, or that we did but for different reasons. Thats always been a challenge here because we want to be accessible. We wanted to put in sidewalks on the bridge and theyre an attraction on their own on a summer day you can see 500-600 people going across. But one of the first things our security consultant said was that you have to close the sidewalks, so we made some changes and maintained accessibility. We feel

Thousand Islands Bridge

WDT: How has the TIBA expanded over the years? HORR: A number of things happened between 1976 and 1977. The first one is that the Canadian properties, including the bridge and the toll plaza, all reverted to the Canadian federal government. The original deal in the 1930s with the Canadian government was that when the construction bonds were paid off, the Canadian properties could revert. Were one system here and having two separate operators didnt make a lot of sense. The authority was able to negotiate a deal with the federal government. The Canadians put us under the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority in 1977. They worked on a series of 10-year agreements until 1980 and weve been working under those agreements ever since. In 1998 the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority of Canada dissolved and privatized. So the bridges that were underneath our bridge, the Seaway International Bridge, the St. Marie, the Montreal bridges went under a new corporation called the Federal Bridge Corporation, a cloud corporation like a federal authority. We negotiated a new 10-year agreement with them that were continuing today. In 1977, the authority assumed

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ownership of Boldt Castle and all the Boldt properties. Those are the most major things that have happened at the authority since the beginning in terms of responsibilities. WDT: What is the busiest time of year for the bridges? HORR: The summer months. With the Canadian dollar where it is now, our passenger traffic is much busier. There definitely has been an increase in retail traffic. Canadians have relaxed their duty on what you can take back, so theres a focus to encourage people to come to these areas to shop. WDT: Do the Canadians ever take umbrage at our efforts to attract them to the U.S.? HORR: People complain a bit that theyre not buying Canadian, the nationalism you might expect. I think it comes down to choice. You talk to folks even in the grocery store and its about choice, not just price. They just dont have as many choices in Canadian stores. Its more expensive to do business in Canada.
A longer version of this interview appered in the June 2013 issue of NNY Business. Visit www. nnybizmag.com to read the complete interview.

pretty comfortable now maintaining our sidewalks and were pretty secure. The sidewalks are open during the day and closed at night. WDT: What was the blowback on the recently raised toll rates on the bridge? HORR: There was not a tremendous amount of blowback. People see that the money they pay is going back into the facility. Tolls have a very negative connotation sometimes. A lot of surveys say that people dont mind paying tolls. They see that were spending money to improve and thats why we talk about the projects that were doing. People also see that you dont pay for the bridge if you dont use it. If you do cross here, you pay for it. WDT: Do you have plans to get EZ Pass on the bridge and how far off is that? HORR: Yes. We are working on EZ Pass. It requires an initial upfront investment thats not small, but its something people want, so we are working to get it. Id say its a matter of months. Its going to gain a lot more momentum as we get closer to fall.

Thousand Islands Bridge

Friday, August 16, 2013

Splendid maintenance key to bridges longevity

JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

Nothing, its said, lasts forever. Except for the Thousand Islands Bridge. With proper maintenance and a little luck, the 75-year old spans lifespan could be infinite, according to the engineers who designed it. The life depends on maintenance, said Robert H. Busek, P.E., senior vice president of Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist & Birdsall, New York City, the engineers who designed, built and still keep an eye on the bridge. So far, bridge maintenance has been splendid, Mr. Busek said on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the bridge. He credited the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority for the superior upkeep. The near-perfect maintenance is the chief reason its lasted so long so well, Mr. Busek said. The authority has an excellent reputation with respect to maintenance, said Mr. Busek. Its important to realize the authority does

everything thats needed to keep the bridge in a good functioning condition. Russell I. Wilcox, the authoritys former executive director, said maintenance of the bridge has been his purpose since he arrived in 1962. The bridge is painted every year, and while its being painted, any maintenance that needs to be done a bolt tightened, a crack patched, the replacement of minor things is taken care of, Mr. Wilcox said. From 1984 to 1986, the authority attempted a more ambitious maintenance project: it replaced the entire deck leading to the main span. There are three parts to the bridge. The ramp leading up, the ramp leading down, and the suspension span itself, joining the two. Each segment is 1,500 feet long. The decks were replaced and widened, with traffic limited to one lane. The authority, calculating when the bridge gets the least traffic, did the repairs between 6 p.m.

and 6 a.m. during the week. It worked quite well, Mr. Wilcox said. Mr. Wilcox also cited one more reason the bridge has lasted so long, one that may seem minor, but is in fact vital to the bridges youthful appearance: the authority uses sand, not salt, to melt ice during the winter. Sand, maintenance and the authority arent the only factors determining how long the bridge will last. Trucking and bridge regulations could render the bridge useless, as could the size, numbers and types of loads rolling across it every day. The bridge may become obsolete as opposed to running out of its useful life, Mr. Busek said. Some of the original bridge has already been replaced, but the cables, supports and towers are the same ones erected in 1938. They may be here in 2038, and 2988, Mr. Busek said.

For all practical purposes, they could last forever. The structure will go on, Mr. Busek said. The cables are made up of hundreds of one-eighth-inch thick steel wires. The cables are rooted in concrete anchors. The towers are made of structural steel, supported on concrete bases. If you take a piece of steel and put it out in the environment and paint it every year, it lasts, Mr. Busek said. Most bridges are designed to last 50 years, said Mr. Busek. But his company specializes in more permanent types. Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist & Birdsall, Mr. Buseks company, is involved with another famous span: the Brooklyn Bridge, which is 50 years ahead of the Thousand Islands Bridge. With any luck, the year 2038 will see the Thousand Islands Bridges 100th anniversary. The authority and its engineers are counting on it.

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Thousand Islands Bridge

Bridge ended islanders isolation

Connection to mainland was critical link to rest of region for residents
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

The opening of the Thousand Islands Bridge 75 years ago put the residents of this island on the St. Lawrence River in closer touch with the outside world. In so doing, it ended an island way of life that had thrived in relative isolation from the mainland. You couldnt get off, said Thousand Island Park native Helen P. Jacox, describing an essential fact of life for islanders enduring the long, harsh winters here before the bridge was built. The isolation made islanders resourceful and socially closeknit. In winter, when the summer resort community shut down, It was inconvenient to get to the store, said Mrs. Jacox, co-author of Thousand Island Park: One Hundred Years and Then Some. You only went when it was absolutely necessary. You didnt have the facilities, said Nellie W. Taylor, president of the Thousand Island Park Museum and a Wellesley Island native. You didnt run off to the hospital, but relied instead on a midwife on the island. You didnt take a shine to just going somewhere. It was an effort, winter or summer.

Summer tourists and year-round islanders relied on the mail boat from Clayton and ferrries that carried vehicles, supplies and passengers from Collins Landing, now in the shadow of the bridge span, and from Fishers Landing to Thousand Island Park. The ferries docked every hour during daylight, leaving the streets of this resort and former Methodist campground filled with people. One of the best known of the ferries, the Ark or the TIP (after Thousand Island Park), charged $1.50 per car and carload or 35 cents per passenger in 1928. It could handle five cars and 40 passengers. In earlier years, steamers plied the river between Clayton, Cape Vincent and Gananoque, carrying railroad passengers and other tourists to the island.

on ice punts or boats to attend school in Clayton. Some pupils boarded in Clayton homes and returned to the island on weekends. Ice jams and swift currents made the trip a dangerous one. Mrs. Jacox recalled an incident in the 1930s when she was a Clayton High School student and the students island-bound boat was trapped in ice floes that had broken up on Lake Ontario. Another boat towed them back to the mainland, where they spent the night.

really had to do whatever you could do to make any kind of money, Mrs. Taylor said. Boatbuilding was one such occupation. They lived more or less off the land, said Mrs. Jacox. The men fished and hunted and trapped. Wild game was a staple of the islanders diet. I never liked wild duck. I think its because my parents had it all the time, Mrs. Taylor said.

NO LACK OF SOCIAL LIFE

SOME WENT THROUGH ICE

PUPILS BOARDED IN CLAYTON

FERRIES CARRIED CARS

I remember my grandmother saying it took a day to get to Watertown. And theyd stay over a day for shopping, Mrs. Taylor said.

Residents traveled on foot or by horse and cutter on the icebound river between Thousand Island Park and Fineview, where a store was open year-round. Island residents usually traveled over water or ice, since driving was difficult on the islands few dirt roads. The main island road, paved only a few years before the bridge was erected, was quite an improvement on the mud road that was there, said Mrs. Taylor. Before the bridge, Wellesley Island children were carried across the river

During the deep freeze of January and February, islanders often drove their cars and trucks or horses-andsleighs over the frozen river for groceries and supplies on the mainland. Trucks returned with coal to heat the Thousand Island Park elementary school and year-round homes. Contractors hauled lumber and building supplies back to the island. With money scarce, old buildings were moved across the icebound river, their lumber to be salvaged for new cottages. There were a few accidents. They went through the ice, Mrs. Jacox said. No one got killed that I know of, but there were some cases of pneumonia. She recalled groceries floating on the river after her uncles car plunged through the ice. For year-round residents, You

Despite their isolation, islanders did not lack a social life. Home parties and pot-luck suppers were popular, especially on larger farms, where furniture would be cleared for a dance floor. The annual firemens dance was a highlight of the long winter, followed by biweekly box socials. Quilting parties were popular among women. You dont have the social closeness you had then, said Mrs. Jacox. With the bridge opening, The big thing was that it just changed the whole attitude. You no longer had to stay home. If you wanted to get up and go, you could. There was a bridge. It was a big change after the bridge, said Mrs. Jacox. Not immediately, but gradual. The whole economy had changed. It was a culture that gradually was lost, Mrs. Taylor said.

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Thousand Islands Bridge

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Bringing bridge to fruition a dream come true

JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

It began as a boyhood dream, but the creation of an international bridge linking Canada and the United States faced a long uphill battle before finally becoming a reality in 1938. While summering at Thousand Islands Park in 1908, James Harry Arthur of Mexico, N.Y., became obsessed with the idea of an international bridge. He schemed and dreamed and watched with interest as the building of an international bridge got under way in Brockville, Ont. in 1895. A young Mr. Arthur and his friends played on huge stone abutments that were slated to be part of this bridge, which was supposed to cross Three Sisters Islands. That project was abandoned, much to Mr. Arthurs disappointment, but he continued to quietly map out his plan for a bridge during the ensuing years. By 1926 Mr. Arthur owned the Pratt House Hotel at Thousand Islands Park. After years of planning, he had decided a Collins Landing-Ivy Lea bridge would be most practical. He

wrote to Canadian government officials, outlining his plan, and made a sand model of the bridge, showing islands, the bridges, roads and prominent landmarks. He put this model on display on the lawn in front of Pratt House and it drew a lot of attention from passersby. One of these passersby happened to be W. Gilbert Freeman, then a Glens Falls and Alexandria Bay hotelier. Known as a promoter, Mr. Freeman joined Mr. Arthur in the formation of the Thousand Islands Bridge Corp., with offices in Albany. The corporation was backed with Canadian and American capital and in 1927 the New York State Legislature granted the corporation a charter. On Feb. 14, 1927, the U.S. Congress passed a bill giving the corporation a one-year permit to bridge the American channel. The bill was signed by President Calvin Coolidge. However, former Gov. Alfred E. Smith vetoed the state measure. Mr. Freeman managed to get a second bill passed through the state

Legislature in 1928. The governor vetoed it again on the grounds that a bridge should be a public project. In 1930 the state Legislature appointed a St. Lawrence River Bridge Commission to investigate possible sites for an international bridge across the river. By the following year the commission had come up with six possibilities: Cape Vincent/Kingston; Collins Landing/Ivy Lea; Morristown/Brockville; Ogdensburg/ Prescott; Waddington/Morrisburg; and over the proposed hydro development at Cornwall. The state however, never took any action on the commissions report. Mr. Freeman and Mr. Arthur continued to push for their project but discouragement built and by 1932 they had given up. But Mr. Freeman had firmly planted the idea of an international bridge in the minds of Thousand Islanders and it was then left up to them to pick up the banner. Later on in 1932, the Depression sparked renewed interest in a bridge

because of job creation. Local citizens organized and appointed Watertown civil engineer William T. Field chairman of a committee to promote the international bridge concept. Mr. Field got chambers of commerce, granges, governmental units and boards of trade on the bridge bandwagon and in August of 1932 he convinced the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors to appoint a Thousand Islands Bridge Committee. Mr. Field had field surveys done and enlisted the services of Robinson & Steinman, world-renowned bridge engineers. In November 1932 application was made for a federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation loan for money to build the bridge. The effort paid off. On April 18, 1933, Gov. Herbert H. Lehman signed a bill creating the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority. A year later, the Canadian government announced royal assent to the Thousand Islands Bridge Co. of Ontario, which in Canada, paralleled the work of the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority.

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Friday, August 16, 2013

Thousand Islands Bridge

Bridge proves economic boon to both sides

Tourism, businesses near border helped by bridge as crossings see dramatic uptick
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

It was known as The Bridge from Nowhere to Nowhere. At least among the skeptics. But 50 years after its dedication, the Thousand Islands International Bridge had proved itself a gateway to economic vitality for river communities like Alexandria Bay and Clayton, and continues to be so today. It fuels the tourist trade and lures businesses reliant on cross-border commerce. And it isnt a drain on state taxpayers. The structurewith its $2.75 crossing feeis self-sustaining. By July 1949, the first ripples of the economic spill-over effect began to wash over the region. Tour boat lines, described as not so long ago a starvation proposition, reported robust trade, and veteran caterers to the islands clientele said they could not remember when business was as good.

They pointed to the towering Thousand Islands bridge, spanning Collins Landing to Ivy Lea, Ont., as the genie that brought this good fortune.

FISHING, HOTELS BOOSTED

the movement of freightsuch as Anchor Motor Freight on Wellesley Islandprosper in the shadow of the bridge as well. And as they prosper, so too does the local economy.

Although not quite a return to the heydays of the 1890s and 1900s, when the region served as a playground for ostentatious industrialists, the bridge helped the sport fishing industry show new signs of life, and, as one newspaper accounted, hotels are filled nightly and restaurants are going at capacity. The Thousand Islands region hasnt looked back since. The resorts, restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, duty-free stores and tour-boat operators continue to be direct beneficiaries of the fiscal wellbeing brought by accelerated transborder traffic. But other businesses engaged in

BRIDGE LURED TRUCKING FIRM

Before General Motors selected the Alexandria Bay site, Anchor Motor Freight terminal manager Clark J. Riedel said the company planned to bypass the region entirely, ferrying boats from the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario to Rochester. The existence of the Thousand Islands Bridge tipped the scales in favor of Wellesley Island. Nestled between the Canadian and American spans, he said the island was an ideal spot. It offered an added bonuswe split the fares with the Canadians, said Mr. Riedel.

It permitted Canadian carriers to off-load cars assembled in Scarborough and Oshawa, in the Province of Ontario, and St. Therese, Que., bound for 17 states. Americanassembled cars also make a pit stop at Wellesley Island from Tarrytown, Baltimore, Md., and Framingham, Mass., en route to Canada. The amount of Canadian exports flowing to the United States, via the Thousand Islands Bridge, also attracted the attention of A.N. Deringer Inc., a brokerage firm based in St. Albans, Vt. Assistant Manager Gawaine S. Ward said 99 percent of the firms business is derived from filing entry papers and paying duties for Canadian cargo being transported to the United States. It is one of nine such firms on the island. Deringer is bonded with the U.S.
Please see TOURISM, page 11

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Thousand Islands Bridge

Friday, August 16, 2013

No ordinary construction job for 70 workers

Seeking a job in tough times, bridges workers came from varied backgrounds
JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

In 1937-38 it was just a job, working on the construction of a new bridge. The hundreds of men who worked on various aspects of construction of the Thousand Islands Bridge were just glad to have a job in those tough times. Little did they realize they were building history. They never imagined that 50 years later they would become celebrities. Although many have died, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority found about 70 of the original construction workers. They were honored in a special ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the bridge Aug. 18, 1988. The men who worked on the bridge did everything from pouring cement to erecting steel to operating machinery.

spring of 1938, Mr. McDonald was taking down a derrick that was used to lift steel. One side of the derrick slipped, and Mr. McDonald plunged onto the rocks below. He had a quarter in his pocket and it was bent double, Mr. Reid said. He mustve fallen awfully hard. It was the only tragedy to mar the year-and-a-half-long construction period.

WILLIAM J. DENNY

LEO V. REID

Leo V. Reid, Ivy Lea, Ont., was a steelworker on the bridge in the winter of 1937-38. He helped rivet the towers on the Canadian span. At age 21 he lived on his familys farm and didnt have a job. The foreman of the steelworkers boarded at Mr. Reids fathers house, so he made the contact and was offered a job. He had no training in steelwork, but began as a riveters helper and received all of his training on the job. Mr. Reid said there were no safety shoes or hard hats, and he worked on a scaffolding hoisted by ropes. He earned $1.10 an hour, which was a good wage back then. Ordinary wages were 25 cents an hour if you could even get a job, Mr. Reid said. He liked the work and all of the people he met, including fellow steelworker Angus McDonald, the only man killed during the construction of the bridge. Mr. Reid and Mr. McDonald had worked together all winter. In the

The scarcity of work and the good wages also attracted William J. Denny, Depauville, to a job on the bridge. Mr. Denny worked on the two main piers of the U.S. span when the cement was being poured in 1937. His primary job was batch plant operator, pouring dry cement mix into trucks, but his duties also included slogging through the wet cement with boots on to stamp it down. It was awful hard on your legs, he said. At 75 cents an hour, Mr. Denny made much more at his bridge job than he did working on a farm, which he did before the bridge project. After working on the bridge, Mr. Denny decided to stay in the construction business and went to work at Camp (now Fort) Drum. Bert E. Tibbles Bert E. Tibbles Sr., Alexandria Bay, was another construction worker who enjoyed his bridge job so much he stayed in the business after his nine-month stint as a machine operator. Mr. Tibbles operated a cement mixer on a platform 25 feet above the ground. The machine he operated pumped the cement up and into the frames that formed the large piers under the American span. He was 28 and looking for work in 1937 when bridge construction started. I went back two or three times

and asked them if they needed any help. Finally they said yes, you can go right to work. It was dog eat dog in those days, Mr. Tibbles said. There just wasnt the work. He worked six days a week for 75 cents an hour. I thought that was really big. Mr. Tibbles said that in a way he realized the significance of the bridge, but the fact that he had a well-paying job was more important to him.

said he missed the bridge dedication ceremony on Aug. 18, 1938, because he was busy taking spectators for boat rides under the new bridges. Mr. Truesdell ended up going into business for himself at the age of 17; from his own construction business this year.

LYLE G. BONNEY

GORDON F. TRUESDELL

While construction workers made up the bulk of the employes at the bridge site, there were others who did various interesting jobs that contributed to the monumental effort. Gordon F. Truesdell, Gananoque, Ont., was only 12 when he secured himself a summer job as a water boy at the construction site. Living in Ivy Lea, Ont., at the time, Mr. Truesdell was in the right place at the right time when construction started and he heard a water boy was needed. With a homemade flat-bottomed punt with an outboard motor, he got the job. He was hired by Cameron & Finn, the cement contractors on the Canadian side, and worked during the summers of 1937 and 1938. Mr. Truesdell obtained fresh drinking water from a spring in Ivy Lea and toted it around in his boat, from work area to work area, for the builders. He said he climbed the piers four times a day, hauling a pail full of water up with a rope, to offer drinking water to workers up on the top. He also occasionally ran engineers around the work site in his boat. For his efforts he made a whopping $4.25 a day, a fortune to a 12-year-old boy in 1937. I had lots of money in the bank; I bought a new bicycle, and Ive never had to ask anybody for money ever since. Ever enterprising, Mr. Truesdell

Obviously this massive construction effort on what was barren land amounted to a gigantic traffic problem. Trucks were going every which way through the fields, before the connecting roads were built, said Lyle G. Bonney, Watertown. Mr. Bonney, a retired Watertown city police officer, worked as a special Jefferson County sheriffs deputy during the bridge building. It was his job to try to make some organization out of the construction traffic, as well as provide security at the site. He wore a deputys uniform and raked in a good wage of $4 a day. Mr. Bonney used a whistle to help direct traffica whistle that caused problems under the blistering summer sun. I remember it being so hot, he said. Blowing that whistle a lot my lips got really chapped, and Id have to put ice on them when I went home at night. On the day of the bridges dedication, Mr. Bonney missed the festivities because he was stationed at Canadian Customs to help direct traffic. There were so many cars that day; people driving back and forth, just for the sake of going across the bridges. Mr. Bonney said that early on the morning of Aug. 18 (actually in the middle of the night), cars were already lining up on the Canadian side in anticipation of the bridges opening, because everybody wanted to be the first one.

Friday, August 16, 2013

TOURISM, from page 9
Customs Service, which serves as a guarantee that all cargo complies with regulations, the values established for the freight are accurate and the duties paid are correct. The firm has nine full-time employees. If there werent a border crossing, there wouldnt be a reason to be here, he explained simply.

Thousand Islands Bridge

The bridge is a commuter bridge, it brings a big market for us, Mr. Russell said. And its a market that wasnt nearly as strong before. Id say the bridge is responsible for uniting the river, said Mr. Russell. No longer is the St. Lawrence a natural boundary, dividing the two nations, but rather, a span which he said kind of tied it together. The heightened cross-border traffic is evidenced by the raw numbers. According to vehicle tallies by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority, by the bridges 50th anniversary, 10 times the number of cars and

11
trucks cross the span as did when it opened 50 years ago. In the most recent fiscal year, which spans from March 1, 2012, to Feb. 29, 2013, 2,078,622 commercial and passenger vehicles made the crossing, compared to the bridges first full year of operation, when 150,000 made that same passage. The number of passenger vehicles swells from May through October evidence that the span is used heavily by vacationers. In June 2013, for example, 200,544 cars rolled across the spandouble the traffic volume in February 2013.

FERRIES MADE CROSSING

That same logic appliesapparentlyto the Canadian traveler. Before the bridges dedication on Aug. 18, 1938, sight-seers boarded time-consuming, motion-sicknessinducing ferry boats to make the crossing. No fewer than four firms provided that service, according to Clayton Town Supervisor Gordon D. Cerow Jr. Three steel ferries traveled the

route from Gananoque, Ont., to Clayton: the Horne Ferry, from Cape Vincent to Kingston, the Collins Landing Ferry, and the Brainard Robbins Ferry, which connected Fishers Landing to the Thousand Islands Park on Wellesley Island. The hassle, alone, hampered the tourist trade along the St. Lawrence, said Mr. Cerow. John N. Russell, general manager of Bonnie Castle Resort, Alexandria Bay, recalls this mode of transportation as a rather primitive deal.

CROSS-TOWN TRIP

By contrast, he said the Thousand Islands International Bridge makes the cross-border trek more like a cross-town commute, he said. And the resulta measurable increase in the amount of Canadian tourists traveling to the resort for dinner or plush overnight accommodations.

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Thousand Islands Bridge

Friday, August 16, 2013

Saturday outing turned shot of lasting fame

JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS ARCHIVES

Seventy-five years ago they were strangers. Two small children, plucked from a crowd of 25,000 by a newspaper photographer, eager to get the perfect shot. Two small children whisked across the International Rift Bridge, concerned guardians racing behind. Two small children whose photograph would appear in newspapers on both sides of the border Aug. 19, 1938; a symbol of the peace and goodwill that characterized the dedication of the Thousand Islands International Bridge on Aug. 18, 1938. The two small children, Elinor Firth Rowins, now 55, Kingston, Ont., and Robert C. Kernehan, now 57, Plessis, are all grown up now. But they made history that day, holding hands on the International Rift Bridge and exchanging Canadian and U.S. flags. Although Mrs. Rowins was only 5 years old that day and Mr. Kernehan was 7, both remember the event vividly, although neither was anywhere

near old enough to comprehend its historical significance. Mrs. Rowins was with her parents, waiting patiently under a blistering sun for the motorcade carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William L. Mackenzie King to pass by. Having traveled from Brockville, they were on the Canadian side of the Rift Bridge. All of the sudden this photographer ran up and said, Is this a little Canadian girl? Can I borrow her? Mrs. Rowins recalled. He took my hand and we raced down the road. We had to hurry because (the official party) was coming. A 7-year-old Mr. Kernehan was on the other side of the Rift Bridge, waiting for the motorcade with his grandparents. All of a sudden one of the photographers grabbed ahold of me and said I want to borrow your little boy, Mr. Kernehan remembered. He said his grandmother was initially upset by the whole scene because she was afraid the photog-

rapher was trying to kidnap him in the crush of people. After some explanations, however, Mr. Kernehans grandparents consented and the whole group ran down to the Rift Bridge where Mrs. Rowins was waiting. They stuck a flag in my hand and started snapping picture, Mr. Kernehan said. I was dumbfounded; I didnt know what was taking place. Not only did the photo appear in newspapers, but footage of the two children was featured on the Movietone newsreel that was shown at theaters before the featured movies started. Although neither one remembers talking very much to the other, Mr. Kernehans grandparents and Mrs. Rowins parents did talk. They became so friendly, in fact, that they kept in touch for several years, exchanging letters and Christmas cards. Mrs. Rowins even remembers the two families getting together in Alexandria Bay one year for a picnic. Although the two children made

and witnessed history that day, their most vivid memories are of the typical things children would notice. I remember the Mounties (Royal Mounted Canadian Police) all in their red coats, lined up along the road, Mrs. Rowins said. Her attendance at the bridge dedication, Mrs. Rowins said, was something to do on a Saturday; it was a big deal going somewhere in the car. I knew there was a president and a prime minister and we were going to see somebody special, but as far as the significance to seeing a head of a country, well... Mr. Kernehan said he was interested in seeing President Roosevelt, which he did as the presidential motorcade passed by, but the significance of the opening of the international bridge was a concept that didnt really sink in. It was a one shot in a lifetime thing that happened to me, he said. I never dreamed theyd have doings on it 50 years later.

THE NORTH COUNTRY POET

What do we dedicate a bridge or a bond? A bridge dedication we celebrate this week, But really there is more about this span we should speak. We all love our bridge, its really a bond A bond of friendship, a lasting relation Between beautiful Canada, and our great nation. Were not really that different, When asked what we say We Americans say pardon, and the Canadians say ay So remember this bridge or Portland and steel, There is something much deeper that we all should feel. So next time you surmount it; traveling suspended in air, Take a moment for prayer, be thankful its there. Its more than just saying of our bridge we are fond, Every time you cross over, thank God for our bond. By Lynn Buggs Davis, written Aug. 19, 1988, for the 50th anniversary of the bridge

Friday, August 16, 2013

Thousand Islands Bridge

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Friday, August 16, 2013

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TI Bridge to host open house Saturday

Free event includes live music, entertainment, memorabilia to commemorate 75th year
BY JAEGUN LEE
TIMES STAFF WRITER

WELLESLEY ISLAND Eva S. Hasseler was 17 and had just graduated from Watertown High School when she took part in the dedication ceremony for the Thousand Islands International Bridge in August 1938. The now 92-year-old summer resident of Henderson Harbor said she participated in the festivities on Wellesley Island 75 years ago as a member of a foresting group that planted maple trees at the border to celebrate formally the completion of this binational effort to connect Collins Landing to Ivy Lea, Ontario. Back then, Americans planted maple trees on the Canadian side of the border and Canadians planted white birch on the U.S. side, she said. President Roosevelt was there in his car greeting and waving at people and there was a party after that a dance and buffet-type deal on the Canadian side. The $3 million T.I. Bridge project broke ground in May 1937 and was completed in only 16 months, some 10 weeks ahead of schedule a remarkable feat considering hydraulic excavators were not available at the time. Safety measures for construction workers were practically nonexistent, which probably helped speed up the project yet led to one fatality. A Mohawk tribal member from Montreal hired as a high-beam worker died in a fall just days before the bridge opened. On Aug. 18, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William L. Mackenzie King rolled in together in the back seat of a customized black Cadillac for the ribbon-cutting, an event that drew a crowd of more than 25,000 people to Wellesley Island. To celebrate the bridges 75th year of operation, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority will hold a public

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES ARCHIVES

President Frankin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William L. Mackenzie King attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Thousand Islands Bridge on Aug. 18, 1938. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority is hosting a free open house on Saturday, Aug. 17 to commemorate the 75th anniversary.

open house Saturday featuring a vintage car show, live music and presentations. According to the authority, annual crossings grew from 150,000 in the T.I. Bridges first year of operation to more than 2 million vehicles today. Ms. Hasseler said she plans to attend the event with her daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters. The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day at the authority property near the U.S. toll plaza on Interstate 81. Historian Brian R. Phillips, of

Rockport, Ontario, and Parsons Transportation a New York City firm hired as the bridges consulting engineer will host a presentation with archival images and video of the construction project during the event. Performing live music at the open house will be Brockville Pipes & Drums of Brockville, Ontario, Fort Drums 10th Mountain Division Band and color guard from the Second Brigade Combat Team and Northern New York rock band Tough Luck. Childrens activities and refresh-

ments, such as ice cream and beverages, also will be available. Memorabilia, including commemorative coins and postcards, will be handed out during the event and drawings for a pair of Thousand Islands vacation packages, which include a nights accommodation, passes to a boat tour and admission to Boldt Castle on Heart Island, will be held as well. Public parking is available near the Thousand Islands welcome center on Collins Landing Road off Seaway Avenue, according to the TIBA.

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