Sep 4, 2008 7:35 pm US/Eastern
Historic Metal Trim Missing From Longfellow Bridge
BOSTON (AP) ―
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The Longfellow Bridge
WBZ
Investigators are trying to determine what happened to more than 2,300 feet of decorative, cast-iron trim that had been temporarily removed from Boston's Longfellow Bridge during ongoing renovation work.
The historic metalwork, which was designed specifically for the bridge a century ago, had been stored at a state labor yard in Stoneham. Each section is seven feet long, two feet wide and weighs 350 pounds.
State officials said Thursday that as recently as about three weeks ago, all the sections appeared to be on the site. Then, earlier this week, two-thirds of the total was discovered missing.
Police have secured the Stoneham Labor Yard, where the missing 2,347 linear feet of decorative, cast-iron trim had been stored. The Middlesex County District Attorney's office has launched an investigation into the disappearance.
"We at DCR are shocked and outraged by the disappearance of this historic metalwork, a unique feature of the Longfellow Bridge that we planned to restore along with the bridge," DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said in a statement.
If melted down and resold as cast iron, the missing sections would be worth an estimated $10,000.
Officials said recreating the sections could cost as much as $750,000.
Last year approximately 3,467 linear feet of the decorative parapet coping was removed from the outside edge of the Longfellow Bridge while repairs to the bridge were under way. Officials planned to have the sections refurbished and eventually reattached to the bridge.
The sections were stacked in piles of 13 or 14 sections each in a fenced-in corner of the yard. As recently as about three weeks ago, all the sections appeared to be on the site, officials said.
The coping is unique, having been molded and cast about 100 years ago specifically to decorate the Longfellow Bridge.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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