McQuillan's bridge

Without fanfare, the County of Wellington advertised for tenders for the construction of six concrete bridges (Engineering and Contract Record 1916, v. 30, n. 21, p. 46):

Sealed tenders will be received by Jas. Beattie, Esq., County Clerk, Fergus, up to 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 1st, for the construction of the following concrete bridges for the County of Wellington:

Four concrete arched trusses of 70 ft., 65 ft., 60 ft. and 30 ft., spans, and two 14-ft. slab bridges.

For plans, specifications and estimate of quantities, apply to
Bowman & Connor
31 Queen St. W., Toronto.

So far as I can tell, the 70 ft. concrete arched truss bridge was to become the new "McQuillan's bridge," that is, the crossing over the Eramosa River on the boundary line between Guelph Township and Puslinch. This bridge, like its wooden predecessors, was known as McQuillan's bridge after the McQuillan family whose farm lay immediately to its north.

The McQuillan bridge is shown in the off-centre, real-photo postcard below:

The postcard was not addressed or mailed but has "Guelph le 1er Mais 1919, Ontario Canada" written on the back, suggesting it was taken on the 1 May 1919.

Today, McQuillan's bridge can be viewed from its replacement, the Stone Road bridge, via Google Street View:



A comparison of images shows that McQuillan's bridge retains its original form, although the knobs that once capped its midsection have since gone missing. The little shield in the middle of the crosspiece over the centre of the bridge says "1916," to celebrate the year of its construction.

This type of bridge is commonly known as a bowstring bridge, to describe how the parabolic shape of the arches on the deck resemble the curve of a bow with its ends held in tension by a bowstring in the form of the bridge deck. The metaphor is apt: The bridge works by suspending the weight of the deck from the arches by virtue of steel bars in the vertical columns and handles the horizontal thrust of the arches by virtue of steel bars embedded lengthwise in the deck.

Engineers of the day called the design a concrete truss bridge with a suspended floor. This type of bridge originated in France in the early years of the 20th Century and quickly spread elsewhere, including Canada. Frank Barber (1914) wrote a short article describing the type of bridge and its early deployment in Ontario, in which he was closely involved. For example, Barber had designed the Middle Road Bridge between Toronto and Mississauga in 1909.

As Barber explains, an important advantage of the bowstring bridge is that since the superstructure of the bridge resides entirely above the deck, it does not need to be raised high on large abutments. A look at McQuillan's bridge from a low angle shows that its designers were happy to have it sit low over the Eramosa River, on the plausible assumption that nothing large needed to pass under it.

McQuillan's bridge was designed by the engineering firm Bowman and Connor of Toronto. As engineers for Wellington County (and Waterloo), they designed and oversaw the construction of many such bridges in the region.

The winning tender for this construction project went to Charles Mattaini of Fergus. Mattaini was born and raised in Vergiate, Italy, near Milan, where he worked as a mason. He immigrated to Canada in 1898 and continued his work in the construction trade (Mattaini 1979). In 1903, he moved to Fergus with his new bride, Marie Landoni, and set out his shingle as builder with expertise in foundations, cisterns, water troughs, culverts, bridges, sidewalks, etc.

Mattaini's ledger for 1916 mentions a number of projects: bridge on Irvine, bridge for Erin Township, culvert at Prison Farm, County Council bridge, and McQuillan's bridge. It seems likely that he and his crew used material from the quarry at the Prison Farm nearby to complete the culvert and McQuillan's bridge.

The McQuillan family after whom the bridge was known were also masons (Daily Mercury, 23 May 1881). James McQuillan immigrated to Canada from County Monaghan, Ireland, and arrived in Guelph in the summer of 1827, only a few months after the village was founded in April. His skills as a mason and a builder proved immediately valuable. He built the first stone structure in the village, which was, perhaps, the stone school house at the corner of Neeve and Waterloo (now Fountain) streets (since demolished).

McQuillan and his family later occupied a farm on land now part of the University of Guelph along the north side of Stone Road east of Gordon Street. There he farmed and kept a tavern for some time. He then moved a little further east to a farm north of Stone Road and east of Victoria Road, which included a stretch of the Eramosa River, where he spent the rest of his life.

The map below shows the final McQuillan farm in the 1906 Wellington County Atlas. At that time, the farm was in the possession of Arthur and Bernard, two of James McQuillan's sons. On the map, the circle in the lower-right corner shows the location of McQuillan's bridge.

The box on the map shows the laneway to McQuillan's house, which he also built (since demolished), from Victoria Road. A photograph of this house was taken by Gordon Couling in March 1969 and resides in the Wellington County Archives.

("Stone house, Concession 1 Lot 10 in Division G, Guelph Township, 1969." Wellington County Archives A1985.110.)

James McQuillan died suddenly of "old age" on 21 May 1881, in his 85th year.

In 2000, Stone Road was widened to two lanes and rerouted north of the McQuillan's bridge. As noted in "The Grand River Watershed Heritage Bridge Inventory" (2013), the old bridge was designated as a heritage structure in 2004:

The Stone Road [McQuillan] Bridge is included on the Ontario Heritage Bridge List, spans a designated Canadian Heritage River route and is considered to be an early and rare surviving example of concrete bowstring arch construction in a local, provincial and national context.

It now functions as pedestrian bridge for hikers and as a memorial to the technology and taste of builders of the early 20th century.

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The McQuillan bridge is not the only memento of the prolific McQuillan family. For example, the McQuillan Block on 101–107 Wyndham Street was built by Arthur and Francis (Frank) McQuillan, two of James's sons.



The Block sits behind the tree in this Google Street View scene. Built in 1874, the Block originally extended further along the street, through the Budd's clothing store (since vacated) in the picture. In 1965, a fire destroyed the two northern units. The old sidewall of the original block can still be seen over the roof of the replacement building on the extreme left of the image.