Guilford Quarry Pratt Through Truss Bridge

The bridge was constructed in 1902 to extend a spur of the B&O railroad beyond Savage, Maryland upstream toward a quarry at Guilford Maryland. The town of Guilford at its peak comprised a mill, quarry, and a small village of stone structures.

Image:Bulletin 426 Plate VI B Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company Quarry.jpg

Guilford was noted for high quality granite for building structures.{{cite book |last1=Stein |first1=Charles Francis |title=Origin and History of Howard County Maryland |date=1972 |publisher=Charles Francis Stein, Jr. |page=2|edition=First |language=English}} The "old Gault" Guilford quarries first started mining Guilford Quartz Monzonite in 1834. They were managed by the Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company in 1887 and later in 1889 by Matthew Gault & Son prior to the bridge installation on the Little Pautuxent river.{{cite book |title=Textile Manufacturers Directory of The United States |date=1881 |page=267}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=KxEMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP1 Maryland Geological Survey Volume 2], 1898, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. The river was unnavigable by boat cargo, but the location along the east coast fall-line provided watermill power for mill operations and expansion of industrial applications. These included the 1744 Guilford mill expanded to 50 looms by 1881 as the (Gary Cotton Mill) under the proprietorship of James S. Gary until it burned in 1890.{{cite web |title=Guilford Mill |url=https://sites.google.com/view/guilfordhistoryhoco/home/guilford-mill |website=Friends of Guilford Industrial Historic District |access-date=9 June 2021}} In 1901, the Maryland Granite Company was incorporated, purchasing 200 acres of land including the Gault quarry, Lohman and Earp Farms, and Gary Mill property. A standard-gauge railroad extension from the Savage Mill spur of the B&O railroad was started on an escarpment along the river. In addition to the bridge, a steam plant, electric plant, telephone & telegraph lines, air compressor for steel-shot cutting, 20-ton overhead crane and additional houses for employees were planned under the supervision of James J. Miller. The anticipation was to have 200 stonecutters in operation filling three railcars of rough stone daily enabled by the bridge.{{cite book |last1=Hoyt |first1=Frank |title=Devoted to the Quarrying and Cutting of Stone for Architectural Uses · Volume 22 |date=1901}}

The majority of the town's historic structures have since been demolished or displaced by development of the Columbia, Maryland project village of Kings Contrivance, leaving only the bridge and quarry remnants for preservation.{{cite web |title=HO-742 |url=https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Howard/HO-742.pdf |website=Maryland Historical Trust |access-date=9 June 2021}}

On June 2, 2021, the Guilford Quarry Pratt Through Truss Bridge was registered on the National Register of Historic Places.{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/weekly-list-2021-06-04.htm |website=National Register of Historic Places |access-date=8 June 2021|title=Weekly List}}

{{Portal|National Register of Historic Places|Transport|Engineering|Trains|Maryland}}

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland
• List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks
• List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
• List of Howard County properties in the Maryland Historical Trust
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Maryland
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Howard County, Maryland

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• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070211034834/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=957811596&ResourceType=Structure National Historic Landmark information]

{{National Register of Historic Places}}

{{NRHP bridges}}

Category:Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridges

Category:Bridges in Howard County, Maryland

Category:Railroad bridges in Maryland

Category:Truss bridges in the United States

Category:Bridges completed in 1902

Category:Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks

Category:Railroad bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland

Category:Railroad-related National Historic Landmarks

Category:National Historic Landmarks in Maryland

Category:Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Howard County, Maryland

Category:Suspension bridges in Maryland