CONSTRUCTION

George B. Francis supervised the initial planning and estimating work involved in gaining acceptance of the design of a new Union Station and in March of 1892 was appointed resident engineer of the project. His article in the May 1909 Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies is the definitive description of the construction. The project got underway in the summer of 1890 and the new station was opened on September 18, 1898.

The plan accepted in 1890 was modified somewhat in 1894 to eliminate curved tracks through the station and to provide for a different building than originally contemplated. The revised plan above shows the Cove and theTefft Union Station in dotted lines.

Panoramic View Of Construction Underway

The Tetft Depot can be seen along the bottom edge of the view. The above ground support work for the new station is on the left. On the right is the P&W freight house with the B&P freight house behind it. The Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers join at the east end of the old depot tracks. The State House will occupy the rise of land in the top center right. See a detail of this photo below.

In this photograph the Moshassuck River (right) has been rerouted, the Cove filled, and the Woonasquatucket River (left) channelled between walls. The bridges for the east approach to the station include a pin-connected truss over the Woonasquatucket and a girder bridge over the future Promenade Street.

This postcard shows the junction of the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers which form the Providence River. The State House was started in 1895 and completed in 1904. Promenade Street crosses the river on the right. This view would soon disappear when the viaduct to the new tunnel was built.

Abutments for the bridge over Gaspee Street were built between September 1891 and October 1892. The stone rests on spruce piles and hemlock timber grillage. The station work required driving 17,000 piles of 30 to 45 feet in length. This bridge carried 12 tracks over a 70 foot wide street. City Hall can be seen on the left edge of the photo.

Gaspee Street Bridge Girder. The wooden trusswork was a traveling crane used to position the girders. The crane lifted the girders from railroad flat cars and moved them into position by traveling on rails laid to the bridge site.

The nearly completed Gaspee Street Bridge with City Hall in the background. The floor on which the ballasted track would be laid consisted of watertight troughs to carry away rain water to gutters and downspouts at the bridge ends.

The arrangement of buildings and tracks at the new Union Station. The station was still considered to be a combination of through and terminal station and therefore there are eight stub-end tracks for the many local trains which would terminate. The pair of tentative tracks that end at each side of Francis Street were built and connected.

The completed Union Station opened September 18, 1898. The architects were Stone, Carpenter & Wilson of Providence. The flanking structures are an express building (right) and a railroad office building (left). Separated from the main waiting room by colonnades are a baggage building (right) and a restaurant (left). The Tefft Union Station stood on the bottom edge of the park (right) in the postcard. The State House was built between 1895 and 1904.

POSTCARD VIEWS