Thurman Bridges, 1870s (left) and 1942 (right). (Warren County DPW collection)
Thurman Bridge. - Richard Cameron, George Pattison and Stephen Griffing (Jr.) were appointed commissioners by an Act of the Assembly in 1835 to locate and build the first
wooden bridge over the Hudson River connecting Warrensburgh and Athol. The State authorized $3,000, with the
stipulation that the County raise the balance.
Each Commissioner was to be paid $2 per day out of the appropriation. The bridge was to be constructed of "the
best pine timber, double-track, latticed and covered." Apparently economy dictated the final result,
which on February 19, 1857 was lifted from
its foundation by ice
"going out" and swept down the river. That same year it was reconstructed,
apparently of the same poor design (according to Henry Griffing in Stephen
Griffing, its Ancestry and Descendents) and after numerous repairs, in 1870
it collapsed of its own weight into the river.
It, too was rebuilt, this time of iron on newly constructed piers and
abutments. That 1870 bridge withstood
numerous ice-outs but it too deteriorated so much that, during the 1930s and
early 1940s, school children were required to leave their buses at one end and
walk across, while the empty bus drove across afterwards. A completely new bridge and approaches were
constructed in 1942. This bridge
continues to serve the Hudson River crossing today.