Squire Whipple, a Union College graduate of the class of 1830 sometimes called the father of iron bridges, designed and built this cast iron Whipple truss bridge, which was originally erected in 1869 over the Erie Canal at Fultonville in Montgomery County. After the canal closed in 1917, the bridge was moved to Cayadutta Creek in Fonda, where it served as a private farm bridge. In 1997, Union College, led by Professor Frank Griggs and working in partnership with the Town of Clifton Park, restored the bridge and re-erected it here where a similar bridge once stood. The stone abutments of the original bridge were raised with stonework from the dismantled Erie Canal aqueduct that crossed the river at Rexford. Many wooden farmers' bridges that provided access to farmland divided by the canal also used the Whipple truss design, and canal packet boats barely cleared them, prompting passengers to duck or climb down from the top deck at the warning cry, "Low Bridge, Everybody Down." Those wooden bridges have disappeared, leaving only some stone abutments. Whipple patented his iron truss bridge in 1841, and it became a standard design for iron bridges built in the second half of the nineteenth century. This bridge has the date "1869" cast into the top of each bow.
