Cook's Bridge

Cook's Bridge, also known as the Elliot Street Bridge, stands on the site of one of the earliest bridges to span the Charles River and connect Needham and Newton. The original bridge was built around 1714 on land owned by Captain Robert Cook, one of Needham's first settlers and a signer of the petition that separated Needham from Dedham in 1711. Probably first a timber footbridge, it was strengthened in the late 1700s with stone footings. In 1857, the bridge was rebuilt in stone and in 1897 it was widened to accommodate the Newton and Boston Street Railway. The 1857 stone bridge was the last bridge built by noted Newton stonemason Nanthan Crafts, who was killed in an accident on the bridge during its construction. More than 150 years later, the bridge remains a testament to his work and a relic of the time before the Civil War, when stonework was the province of skilled masons rather than civil engineers. Fisher's Bridge in Needham, from Central Avenue to Centre Street where it crosses into Dover, is also thought to be an example of Crafts's work.

Needham, Massachusetts · United States