[350] Bridge-manufacturing in Boston or vicinity previous to that time had not been successful, and the modest beginning of the Boston Bridge Works gave ample opportunity to study and, so far as possible, avoid the causes of previous failure. The growth of the business was not at first rapid, but it was steady until, in the early spring of 1881, it had outgrown the accommodations afforded by the buildings and grounds first occupied. After a most exhaustive examination of the facilities afforded by other regions sufficiently near Boston, it was decided that no other spot combined so many advantages as are united at the present location. The Boston Bridge Works produce steel or iron railroad and highway bridges, with fixed or movable spans for drawbridges of every description or requirement,—steel-roof trusses and coverings, steel building-frames and complete steel buildings, locomotive turn-tables, and all kinds of structural frames required. The works cover about one hundred and forty thousand square feet of ground, and are completely equipped with modern machinery for a bridge-building plant. Last year they turned out and shipped about eight thousand tons of finished material. Among the notable bridges built by the Boston Bridge Works in this vicinity may be mentioned the Harvard Bridge, from Cambridge to Boston, and the Dover Street Bridge and Boylston Street Bridge, in Boston. These works also produced the majority of the largest railroad bridges in New England, and have furnished the steel framework of several large and notable buildings, among which may be named the new Worthington building on State Street, and the new Tremont building in Boston. The number of men usually employed by the Boston Bridge Works is not far from three hundred, but at times has reached over four hundred. The foregoing will give a fair idea of the general output and character of this distinctively Cambridge enterprise, and it shows that it is quite possible to produce steel structural work on a fairly extensive scale in New England, despite the large advantage generally conceded to Pennsylvania in this class of business.
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[350] Bridge-manufacturing in Boston or vicinity previous to that time had not been successful, and the modest beginning of the Boston Bridge Works gave ample opportunity to study and, so far as possible, avoid the causes of previous failure. The growth of the business was not at first rapid, but it was steady until, in the early spring of 1881, it had outgrown the accommodations afforded by the buildings and grounds first occupied. After a most exhaustive examination of the facilities afforded by other regions sufficiently near Boston, it was decided that no other spot combined so many advantages as are united at the present location. The Boston Bridge Works produce steel or iron railroad and highway bridges, with fixed or movable spans for drawbridges of every description or requirement,—steel-roof trusses and coverings, steel building-frames and complete steel buildings, locomotive turn-tables, and all kinds of structural frames required. The works cover about one hundred and forty thousand square feet of ground, and are completely equipped with modern machinery for a bridge-building plant. Last year they turned out and shipped about eight thousand tons of finished material. Among the notable bridges built by the Boston Bridge Works in this vicinity may be mentioned the Harvard Bridge, from Cambridge to Boston, and the Dover Street Bridge and Boylston Street Bridge, in Boston. These works also produced the majority of the largest railroad bridges in New England, and have furnished the steel framework of several large and notable buildings, among which may be named the new Worthington building on State Street, and the new Tremont building in Boston. The number of men usually employed by the Boston Bridge Works is not far from three hundred, but at times has reached over four hundred. The foregoing will give a fair idea of the general output and character of this distinctively Cambridge enterprise, and it shows that it is quite possible to produce steel structural work on a fairly extensive scale in New England, despite the large advantage generally conceded to Pennsylvania in this class of business.
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