| The Charles
River Bridge opened in 1786, a 1,503 foot masterpiece that
replaced a Harvard-operated ferry service
between Boston and Charlestown. The bridge paid for its construction
and operating expenses, and turned a profit for its investors,
by charging a toll. The bridge was so financially successful
that in 1793 it was followed by the even longer West Boston
Bridge, on the site of today's Longfellow Bridge. A third
bridge, known as Craigie's Bridge, connected Boston and East
Cambridge in 1809. And two more bridges were built at River
Street and Western Avenue in 1810 and 1824. These were all
draw-bridges, which allowed masted vessles to sail along the
river. The first permanent bridge across the Charles was the
Longfellow Bridge (1906).
In 1828, Massachusetts authorized a second toll bridge between
Boston and Charlestown, known as the Warren Bridge. The new
bridge was to be just 300 feet upstream from the Charles River
Bridge, and planned to be toll-free after six years of operation.
Harvard College, which originally protested the new bridge,
was to be paid half the annuity owed by the Charles River
Bridge proprietors. During and after construction of the new
Warren Bridge, the owners of the Charles River Bridge claimed
the state had granted them an implied monopoly on the bridge.
The case went all the way to the United States Supreme court
in 1831, but was not ultimately decided for six years. The
court's opinion was written by Chief Justice Roger Taney,
who Andrew Jackson had appointed in 1835. Taney declared that
the public interest was the overriding concern in the case,
and so allowed the Warren Bridge to operate. He worried that
allowing the Charles River Bridge's charter to stand would
block progress and internal improvements. The case has had
profound importance in shaping judicial authority over property
rights, corporations, charters and issues of equal access
to economic development.
Links on the Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge
case:
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