Trestle Bridge has welcomed visitors and residents to Franklin for over a century — and its future has been hotly debated for years.
It continued to stir conversation at a hearing on Monday, despite crossing a major milestone: The Franklin City Council voted 7-1 to rehabilitate the bridge, which the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance placed on its Seven to Save list in 2023.
Addressing the bridge’s aged wood and instability will cost the city an estimated $1 million during what has been a tumultuous budget season. But preservation, a majority of city leaders agreed, was the best way to keep a piece of Franklin’s history alive.
“The thing I know about history is this: You don’t get a do-over,” resident Robert Desrochers Jr. said during public comment. “If we decide to let the Trestle rot away, like we seem to do with too much of our cultural patrimony around here, we will regret it.”
The Trestle Bridge was built in 1890 to carry railroad traffic connecting the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad to the Northern Railroad. It became defunct in the 1970s, and was named shortly thereafter as a feature in the Franklin Falls Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Franklin received a $128,000 grant in 2019 for the Trestle Bridge project from the federally funded Transportation Alternatives Program. In addition to the grant, the program would fund 80% of a project plan chosen by the city council, leaving the city to cover the remaining 20% of the cost.
In 2023, the city council voted to replace the bridge in kind, an approach that would have an approximate $5 million price tag. Monday’s meeting served as a temperature check as to which in-kind options residents liked best: rehabilitate the bridge using some of the original wood, replace the bridge using cost-effective glulam wood or replace the bridge with steel to minimize maintenance. Another option proposed to demolish the bridge entirely, disqualifying the project from receiving the grant. Every avenue results in an estimated $1 million commitment for the city.
Some residents said they felt money is needed elsewhere, especially during a budget process that could threaten several positions and programs throughout Franklin’s schools.
“If we have an extra million dollars, based on some of these meetings in the last six months, the needed items are the school, fire department, the police department and the roads. Not once in any of those discussions was a need expressed for the bridge,” said resident Dean Laughy.
Others suggested postponing the project to delay the impact on taxpayers. But David Chunn, Franklin planning and zoning director, said the grant stipulates that construction should begin within 10 years. Otherwise, the city would risk losing the match. He also said the price of the project has already gone up every year since the city received the grant almost seven years ago.
“The cost of doing anything, constructing anything, especially something like a bridge that carries people and pedestrians and bicyclists — just the cost has gone up exponentially since the pandemic,” Chunn said.
The option chosen by the city council will involve saving 20% of the old wood to reuse, and the remainder will be replaced with new wood, pressure-treated and stained to maintain its original look, according to June 17 meeting minutes. It is the most expensive option out of the four, costing the city about $1.4 million, but could be reduced by $100,000 if none of the original wood is salvaged and foundations are made of concrete instead of granite.
“I think that this will keep it on the historic register; there will be the potential to access grants for maintenance in the future because it will be considered historical, and we continue to have the icon that you drive into Franklin and see,” said Councilor Susan Hallett-Cook.
