Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 2.

[p. 86] Maiden and Chelsea bridges. The construction of Charlestown bridge had previously damaged the river transportation which had been Medford's pride.

The town was much excited over the project of a bridge at ‘Penny Ferry’ (Malden), and harsh words were said about the Charlestown people who favored it. Even the Rev. David Osgood¹ was moved to indignation, and voiced the sentiments of his townsmen in a letter to a friend in Charlestown.

He wrote,

Almost ever since I saw you I have been so agitated about that execrable bridge at Penny Ferry, that law and divinity have both been obliged to stand whilst I have rallied all my powers to fight the bridge builders. . . . I do think it unpardonable in. . . . the . . . inhabitants of Charlestown who are abettors in this business.

After the danger and terror they were all in from the apprehension of a bridge at Lechmere Point . . . so immediately to turn upon us and appear so zealous for the destruction of Medford, is a conduct so base and ungenerous as nothing can palliate.

I shall be tempted when I preach again to take total depravity for my subject, though that be a doctrine of which I had begun to doubt till I had this recent proof of it.

Referring to a letter which he had written for circulation in the General Court, the Doctor says: ‘If the facts which I have produced do not carry conviction . . . I shall think that all the world is mad, and that I and my people, with the few who have hitherto joined us, remain the only sober and rational part of this creation.’

It was a sad blow to Dr. Osgood, Mr. Hall, and others that Maj. Samuel Swan, their personal friend and a resident of Medford during the Revolution, should have been one of the chief advocates of this bridge. He always boasted that his chaise was the first to cross the bridge when it was open to travel.