by Anne Motto, F.M. Kirby Curator of Collections
July 29, 2026
In 1794, two residents of Hanover, Stephen Brant and William Sayre, were contracted to build sister bridges over the Passaic River, connecting Morris to Essex County. A fortuitously detailed record, now in MCHS archives, of their progress (and setbacks) tells a surprisingly full story of the construction project from the men who did the building to the supplies that were acquired to the specifications for each bridge.
The Pine Brook Bridge and the Swinefield Bridge were to be identical, aside from one additional pier on the latter, and be built from “good sound white oak.” Ledgers also cataloged payments for timber gathered and carted, stone, shells (for lime), and days spent at a limekiln, as well as charges to board masons and pasture oxen teams. There were also numerous entries for the purchase of that most necessary of supplies – rum. Residents of what was then Hanover and what would very soon be Caldwell labored for a few days at a time on one bridge or the other. About 50 names in total appear as workmen and masons, but over the course of the two-year project, few individuals appear more than two or three times.
The bridges were to be completed by September 1795 at a combined price of £220, but like every construction project ever, ran overtime and over budget. By June 20, 1796, the local inhabitants had had enough and three justices of the peace (John Jacob Faesch, John Cobb, and Abraham Fairchild) along with two freeholders (Enoch Beach and Prudden Alling) wrote a terse letter to Brant and Sayre: “Please to take notice that unless you proceed immediately to Build the Bridge over the Passaick at the Mouth of Pine Brook, agreeable to your contract – That those properly Authorized will proceed to advertise & sell the same that it may be finished, and that whatever loss or difference may arise, will be chargable on you, as the Public have already suffered very much by your not finishing it as you agreed.“
This must have lit a fire under the pair because far more payments to laborers – who worked longer stretches – were made after the letter than before. In fact, while some work had been done in 1795, an entry by Brant on July 5, 1796 went so far as to state “then began Pine Brook Bridg” and one on August 17 “then began bridg at Swinefield.” There were, of course, also increased purchases of rum, with the laying of the foundation of Pine Brook bridge requiring three quarts, and the raising of the bridge a gallon. Work continued to September, and the project seems to have concluded by that December. However, as it came to settle accounts and make final payments to suppliers and workers, a dispute over costs flared between the partners requiring arbitration overseen by Ellis Cook of Hanover and many of the men who had chastised them into action a few months prior. While construction projects today are supplied with presumably less rum, it’s perhaps comforting to know that some things never change.
