BOSTON &, MAINE R. R.
Engineer Department.
H. BISSELL,
CHIEF ENGINEER, Boston, Mass., June 1, 1889
DICTATED.
Theo. Cooper, C.E.
#35 Broadway, New York
Dear Sir:
I send you 3 photographs of the Chain Bridge, also some notes made by a man
I sent there to gain further information.  It seems the bridge was completed in
Nov. 1792.  In Feb. 1827 with an unusual load of snow and ice and an ox team 
the cables broke letting the team into the river. It was repaired and I am
assured by old residents of Newburyport who are well posted in the past history
or the town that the bridge was repaired and the cables now in use are the
ones originally put in, though evidently several of the links have been 
renewed.
I have delayed writing you to make sure that the present was the 
original bridge. 
Yours truly,
H. Bissell