Research

Scope and Content Note

The series consists of 16 mm negative black and white diazo microfilm of records of the Lake Champlain Bridge Commission. Included is information on the formation of the original joint commission and the subsequent bridge commission; work on planning, building, operating, and maintaining both the Lake Champlain (or Crown Point) Bridge from Crown Point, New York to Chimney Point, Vermont, and the Rouses Point Bridge (and its replacement); and related work of the commission through to its dissolution.

Records include minutes of the New York and Vermont Joint Bridge Commission and the Lake Champlain Bridge Commission; general and engineer's correspondence on bridge construction, repairs, inspections, toll rates, finances, advertising, and contracts; legal records on governing rules and regulations of the commission, amendments to the inter-state compact, federal and state acts and resolutions, and deeds and abstracts of titles; contract files on bidders, specifications, bids, contracts, progress reports, and plans; and records on the design and construction, repair, and maintenance of the bridges.

Oversize maps and drawings were not filmed and are not a part of the series. There is a gap in the records from 1939 through 1954, apparently due to a fire which destroyed the commission's Swanton office in 1970, and to the fact that the bridges were still new and needed few repairs during that time.

B1417-16: This accretion consists of blueprint plans used in planning and construction of the Crown Point Bridge. Documentation includes elevations, data related to borings, plans of land to be utilized, electrical wiring schematics, contract drawings, substructures, highway approaches, and other construction features.