The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. [w/Thomson]
CHIEF ENGINEER'S OFFICE,
BOOM 21, GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT.
WALTER KATTE,
Chief Engineer.
New York, December 26th, 1888
Theo. Cooper, Esq., C.E.
35 Broadway, N.Y.
 Dear Sir:
Replying to yours of 20th inst, I beg to inform you that as far as I can learn in regard to the Bridge you enquire about, built for the Harlem Railroad at 109th Street I am told by Mr. Hutchinson, one of our Bridge Foremen, who has boen in the employment of the Company for the last 32 years, that the 109th Street Bridge, also one across the Bronx River at Woodlawn, and another at Croton Palls, were all on the road before he came upon it, which was in the year 1856. He says they were all built by a man named White, who had an establishment known as White's Foundry, somewhere in the neighborhood of 49th Street and 9th Avenue. These bridges had cast iron top chords, a wrought iron lattice web system of plain bars, as also were the lower chords. I am informed that Dr. Goodrich is in possession of an Oil Painting, which shows the bridge at 109th Street. I think that it is part of a landscape of the property which

T.C.-2.
formerly belonged to his family, no doubt he would be very glad to show it to you.
In answer to your second query, as to whether there were any iron bridges on the New York Central Road before Mr. Hilton commenced designing them, upon enquiry, I find that there were iron bridges before Mr. Hilton's time, designed by a man named Carroll, and this is all the information I have been able to gather in regard to the same.
Very truly yours
Walter Katte
Chief Engineer.