Here…is the gateway to Springfield and the towns to the east for almost an entire nation,” proclaimed Massachusetts Governor Channing Cox on August 2, 1922. It was Dedication Day for the new Hampden County Memorial Bridge, which spans the Connecticut River between the City of Springfield and Town of West Springfield in Western Massachusetts. Boston engineers Fay, Spofford & Thorndike, with architects Haven & Hoyt, designed the bridge, deemed a “finely-engineered example of a rare self-supporting arch rib reinforcement technique derived from the Melan tradition” [HAER Ma-114]. …