In rear of the Casey Coal Company

To describe the origin of this structure, believed to be Somerset's oldest road facility, one must look to accounts of New Jersey's earliest past. Since few references to the bridge have been found, its origin has been traced by exploring the beginning of colonial roads and bridges, and the laws relating thereto.

The early settlers found the Indian trails invaluable, needing only widening and rough improvement for horseback riders and later ox-cart use. A mile of Indian trail when so widened required about a quarter of an acre of clearing, which involved felling trees, cutting brush, and moving boulders; mud holes both large and small remained.

For the farmer, his own fields came first; therefore road improvement went slowly. To expedite the work there developed a system, long in use thereafter, of the freeholders' (those who owned their land) paying their taxes by working on the public roads.

Fords and ferries became a part of road development with the former crossing the shallow streams and the latter the rivers where travel justified. After 1700, ferries became quite numerous; their owners were usually men of local prominence, often the landlords of nearby inns or taverns. As roads continued to be improved, the need for bridges arose to replace both the fords and the ferries.

The probable beginning of the Bound Brook Stone Bridge was through the purchase, prior to 1700, of some 2000 acres of land by three local men of vision. These, George Cussart, Samuel Thompson, and Jacob DeGroot, found their property encompassing a section of the Naraticong Indian Trail which, bordering the north bank of the Raritan, proceeded westward, joining on to what is now East Main Street, Bound Brook.

About 1683 or 84 a survey was made to put through a road, first known as the Road Up Raritan, which was projected over the same trail into Bound Brook. From there westward the road found its way through the village of Raritan as the Great Road and on to the confluence of the north and south branches of the Raritan River; eventually to become a part of the Old York Road into Philadelphia.

This early road must have been exceeding rough and somewhat winding because it, like the Indian trails, hugged the contours and so extended its length to reach the fords, where approaches and shallow water favored crossing. This condition had lasted much too long in the opinion of the people living in the two upper precincts of Somerset County. They believed that bridging the stream known as Bound Brook would improve trade in the New Brunswick market. This notion was for so long a while aided and abetted by them that in 1727 the Assembly enacted a law to construct such a bridge, the expense of which was to be borne by those who had pressed for it.

There matters rested until it was noted three years later nothing had been done to execute the law. This it seems was due to the heavy tax burden that would have been placed on those who caused the quarrel and the bickering that followed. Again, the Assembly acted, in 1730, passing a law amending the first and ordering the construction of said bridge in terms easy to understand, including approaches and causeways, with the provision that its cost would be proportioned one-third to the County of Middlesex and twothirds to Somerset. Harmony then existed, and the bridge was completed in 1731 as part of the Bound Brook section of the Road Up Raritan. It is probable that Cussart, Thompson and deGroot, being promoters of the Stone Bridge as well as prominent citizens, were financially able to contribute to its building; for with a bridge, their large holdings would acquire added value and quicker sale. At any rate, a survey made in 1764 stated explicitly ... "and thence to the middle of Bound Brook Stone Bridge indicating it was then in place.

Many years have passed since the bridge served its purpose. Now, no longer needed, it lies encased and nearly covered by fills from the railroads passing on either side. Left exposed is the south face with its impaired buttresses that for many years braced against the strong waters of Bound Brook.