1
200
6
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/f76e95ea46ee5cc58e0964364306d7c2.jpeg
901a40f27ae38ca3729be778729f52de
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Swing Bridges
Description
An account of the resource
Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a><br /><br />"March 2, 1885 - Petition was received from H. M. Dodge & Co., asking permission to construct and maintain a swing bridge across Tonawanda Harbor, landing in Erie County to be at or near foot of Clay Street" - Tonawanda News, 1941-11-07. According to a Tonawanda News article, the southern bridge hadn't been used since the 1940s, when the Continental Can company closed.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Swing bridge to Tonawanda Island, photo (George Hunter, c1965).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965
bridge
swingbridge
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/bd0c8a92b5a2e10a3bccd8e7fa4fddc4.jpg
244aeab33fd3acf8699fe2c27ec2089a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Swing Bridges
Description
An account of the resource
Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a><br /><br />"March 2, 1885 - Petition was received from H. M. Dodge & Co., asking permission to construct and maintain a swing bridge across Tonawanda Harbor, landing in Erie County to be at or near foot of Clay Street" - Tonawanda News, 1941-11-07. According to a Tonawanda News article, the southern bridge hadn't been used since the 1940s, when the Continental Can company closed.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Southern swing bridge, photo (c.1973).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1973
swingbridge
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/6b69da81aad625da66f52473d5d22ac1.jpg
4e6997881d3516653913b546d9e1b27c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Swing Bridges
Description
An account of the resource
Apr 21 1883 "An act to incorporate the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, for the purpose of constructing and operating a bridge from Tonawanda island to North Tonawanda [passed]" - <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IYJZAAAAYAAJ">Gen Statutes of State of New York</a><br /><br />"March 2, 1885 - Petition was received from H. M. Dodge & Co., asking permission to construct and maintain a swing bridge across Tonawanda Harbor, landing in Erie County to be at or near foot of Clay Street" - Tonawanda News, 1941-11-07. According to a Tonawanda News article, the southern bridge hadn't been used since the 1940s, when the Continental Can company closed.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
North swing bridge in operation (c1970).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1970
river
swingbridge
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/29e29a89db5ad7aa30f0a5f7c4106a52.jpg
7c638e502cacb67fb41ede6538e4ce32
https://nthistory.com/files/original/a661846bc65c5966a4471010bb3ee278.jpg
00a232e45b928694ab8db1c0438983ba
https://nthistory.com/files/original/2d6151e8a6b5750b0bc277d66cfa279b.jpg
b0d2272ef0af7eac1e133892865cc2a2
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e83507aff59bac22804d12df3bccc352.jpeg
7cbf68f78110ee810a5a6ee5bf312f91
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Goose Island (Tonawanda)
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/26.jpg" alt="Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913" /><span class="cover-caption">Goose Island as seen from Tonawanda Island, postcard detail, ca 1913.</span> In the mid-nineteenth century, Tonawanda's so-called "Goose Island" has a reputation as the part of town a fatigued, sober and lovelorn "canawler" can go to be cured of at least two of those conditions. Even decades after the Canal era, the area continues to proffer its roguish entertainments. In the mid-1930s, during Prohibition, local law enforcement organizes a series of "vice raids" on its bordellos and taverns, citing widespread lawlessness (the language in the articles is delicately vague, but offenses seem to include the venerable tandem of whoring and drinking). <br /><br />"Goose Island" wasn't a real island: it was a triangular hunk of land in Tonawanda bordered by the Erie Canal, the Niagara River and Tonawanda Creek, in the area where Tops and Rivershore Drive are today (see this <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/331">map</a>). The city waterworks, factories, trains, taverns and homes all mingled here in a pre-zoning law stew. <br /><br />The Historical Society of the Tonawandas <a href="http://www.niagaragreenway.org/sites/default/files/Historical%20Society%20of%20the%20Tonawandas%20NRG%20-%20November%202013%20SQ.pdf">reports</a> (p. 18) that the island also hosted Gillie's merry-go-round company, Louis Philip Perew's curious <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/611">Electric Man</a>, and the Bork Hotel. (Perew and his son also owned many of the "entertainment" places).<br /><br />The island is at last taken by the forces of good. The canal from Tonawanda to Buffalo is filled in around 1927, effectively reconnecting the recalcitrant island to its parent. Later, "Urban Renewal" razes all its remaining structures but the waterworks. Today the former "island" is quietly and profitably inhabited by a small plaza, a <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/942">nightmarish housing project</a>, Tops Friendly Markets and, perhaps most resonantly, the headquarters of the Tonawanda Police Department.
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Portion of Harbor in Twin Cities, Goose Island, postcard (1910-06-15).jpg
Description
An account of the resource
The first postcard apparently penned by someone just arriving in Tonawanda in 1910 to study as a veterinarian under the tutelage of a Dr. H. S. Wende. He gives a charming description of his situation to a newphew, in a very legible hand. <br /><br />More about Dr. Wende from 1891's <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/608"><em>Lumber City</em></a>: <br /><br />Drs. Wende & Thomson, V. S. — Dr. H. S. Wende was born in Erie county, graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1886 and lo-. cated in Tonawanda where he secured a good run of practice, having an operating table and every convenience for the treatment of accidents or the diseases of horses. This is the largest veterinary hospital in this vicinity. Dr. J. P. Thomson, a Canadian and graduate of the above school, has been associated with Dr. Wende for a j-ear or two past, and is giving good satisfaction.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1910-06-15
canal
factory
goose island
lumber
swingbridge
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/e19e30cc5f6b26da99b75995225d98ff.jpg
db445307e4cdce8275770deacbfba220
https://nthistory.com/files/original/dddd8267ba34bc2e9801e48d14bedf65.jpg
9a5a4db8ad68ee54579207696834d553
https://nthistory.com/files/original/fdd792c439e563dabeb21b9fb3229379.jpeg
0147c9fc4ac8defc00196b877a3f022d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal
Description
An account of the resource
The Erie Canal in North Tonawanda followed the existing Tonawanda Creek from Pendleton. The first work done locally was the 1823 construction of a wooden dam near present-day Gateway Park to raise the level of the creek four feet. In 1918 this dam was removed when the length of the Erie was re-engineered to become the Erie Barge Canal. The Tonawanda and Buffalo portions of the canal were abandoned at that time, making North Tonawanda the canal's new western terminus. In 1923 Tonawanda began filling in the old canal. The work was not yet complete in 1929.
Photo
A photographic depiction of a person or place.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Erie Canal lock into the Niagara River, Tonawanda.jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1890
Description
An account of the resource
The lock in this first (c. 1890) photo allowed canal boats to pass from the canal in Tonawanda over into the Niagara River. The non-canal part of the Tonawanda Creek is straight ahead, leading into the Niagara River. Notice the tugboats waiting on the far side of the lock. They could tow canal boats through the river to be loaded up with lumber on Tonawanda Island, or at another dock along the river, and return them to lock back into the canal. In other photos, a weather tower can be seen at right, hung with flags that alerted boaters to the weather conditions outside the safe confines of the canal walls. Today, if you walk alongside Urban Paint on Niagara Street in Tonawanda, in its parking lot you can see a little sign commemorating the lock.
canal
lock
map
river
swingbridge
tonawanda
-
https://nthistory.com/files/original/b118aa3c277078e58455b56b02bbb8cf.jpg
8ceadc5e02e71227127507f4f94aa194
https://nthistory.com/files/original/f2052b4426ed378ec7cf11ea39f95295.jpeg
7149b2bfda60f49f1e9e8565d09c4e48
https://nthistory.com/files/original/beefdfa23e19379d2f818e6b2b23bb29.jpeg
3cca6b04ec8640e25364bb4adac29e7f
https://nthistory.com/files/original/2a3c47977a86942a34d1d13758183d69.jpeg
40419a240c2eebd017c487cfe590ae2f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lumber Business of the Tonawandas
Description
An account of the resource
<img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/48.jpg" alt="Map of the Lumber District of the Tonawandas, 1893" /><span class="cover-caption">In the heyday of the Tonawandas' lumber years, practically every available inch of the Niagara riverfront and Tonawanda Island is covered in lumber (shown as lettered, colored portions in the map above). <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/1848">1893 Sanborn Insurance map</a>.</span> In the mid-to-late 19th century, vast forests of Midwest timber are cut, dressed and shipped by water to the exploding towns and cities of the east, largely through the Tonawandas. The villages' advantageous location (between the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal) and the natural harbor afforded by Tonawanda Island make it one of the largest lumber ports in the country by 1890. A lock allows small craft to jump between the Niagara River and the Erie Canal via the non-canalized portion of Tonawanda Creek.<br /><br />Scores of lumber comanies spring up here, and their yards vaccum up almost every available inch of real estate along the Niagara River, Tonawanda Creek, and Tonawanda Island. Docks are built over the water, and millions of feet of lumber stored in great blocks are stacked to the sky. They are brought here largely on lake vessels from Lake Erie, where they are moved onto canal boats by lumbershovers and stevedores and hauled by canal boat captains (along with other goods) to points east.<br /><br />The big business means big money, and conflict between the laborers and employers sometimes turns deadly. Articles in this collection describe the lumbershovers strikes of 1892 and 1893, the first of which resulted in the death of a police officer, and both of which required the National Guard to be deployed. A separate collection, "<a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/136">Murder at the Docks</a>," digs into the 1895 double murder of canal boat captain Lorenzo Phillips and his son Charles as the captain attempted to haul a load of lumber from P. W. Scribner's Tonawanda dock in defiance of a boatmen's union agreement.<br /><br />As the forests of the midwest were depleted and shipping routes and technology changed, the lumber heyday of the Tonawandas receded into the past.
Postcard
A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Lumber District, postcard (1919).jpg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1919
Description
An account of the resource
A view from the southern portion of a lumber-bedecked Tonawanda Island across the "Little (Niagara) River" onto a lumber-bedecked North Tonawanda.
boat
bridge
collection
lumber
river
swingbridge
tonawandaisland