Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

“ [197] the town of Newton pay one third part of the charge of said bridge.” ¹ And in June, 1700, it was “resolved, that the Great Bridge in Cambridge, over Charles River, be repaired from time to time, one half at the charge of the town of Cambridge, and the other half at the charge of the county of Middlesex.” ² Again, Oct. 25, 1733, the bridge having been “very thoroughly and effectually repaired,” after a large portion of it had been carried away by the ice, the Court granted to Cambridge, £ 117 16s., to Newton, £ 100, and to Lexington, £ 82 4s., in all £ 300,³ in consideration of their extraordinary expense; and on the 22d of June, 1734, “Voted, that three thousand acres of the unappropriated lands of the Province be and hereby are granted to the towns of Cambridge, Newton, and Lexington, to enable them forever hereafter at their own cost and charge, to keep, amend, and repair, the Great Bridge over Charles River in Cambridge; the land to be laid out in three several parts, in equal proportion to each of the said towns.” ⁴ A “plat” of the thousand acres allotted to Cambridge, lying west of Lunenburg, was exhibited and confirmed, Sept. 13, 1734.⁵ All other corporations having been released from liability, the General Court made a final disposition of the matter by an act passed March 11, 1862, by which the city of Cambridge and the town of Brighton were “authorized and required to rebuild the Great Bridge over Charles River,” the expense to be borne “in proportion to the respective valuations of said city and town;” and it was provided that a draw, not less than thirty-two feet wide, should be constructed “at an equal distance from each abutment,” that “the opening in the middle of said draw” should be “the dividing line between Cambridge and Brighton at that point,” and that thereafter each corporation should maintain its half part of the whole structure at its own expense.⁶

In June, 1738, a petition of Edmund Goffe, William Brattle, and others of Cambridge, for liberty to establish a ferry between