The community known as Frenchtown, New Jersey, was once intended to be called Alexandria, after one of its original owners and developers. The land was sold in 1776 to one Thomas Lowrey, a
speculator from nearby
Flemington who built a
gristmill and a
sawmill. Eventually it took its name in honor of Paul Henri Mallet-Prevost, a
Swiss fugitive from the
French Revolution who purchased the land in 1794. Mallet-Prevost spoke
French and the town became known as French's Town, then Frenchtown. The settlement across the river in Pennsylvania was at that time called
Mexico although, it would change its name in 1871 in honor of its first postmaster, Michael Uhler, a significant figure in the commercial and industrial development of the town. In 1829, construction began on the
Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal which ran from
Easton, Pennsylvania south to
Bristol, Pennsylvania. The canal closely paralleled the river, running through Mexico and supporting commerce well on the Pennsylvania side of the river. On the opposite shore, by 1855, the
Belvidere and Delaware Railroad would allow fast transportation north and south between
Trenton, New Jersey and
Belvidere, New Jersey, north of
Phillipsburg. Since at least 1690, transportation east–west across the Delaware had been served by ferries. Both towns were developing in manufacturing and commerce and would soon outgrow the capacity of a ferry service. By 1840 plans were being made to construct a bridge across the river and the Alexandria Bridge Company was soon established.
Early bridges The first bridge was a six
span, wooden,
covered bridge built upon five
stone and
masonry piers and two
abutments. The six spans totalled more than one thousand feet in length and the bridge, completed in about one year at a total cost of $20,000, opened in the early part of 1844. The worst recorded
flood at that time had occurred in 1841, thus sparing the new bridge possible catastrophe. It sustained some repairable
superstructure damage in the flood of 1862. It likewise survived near disaster on June 29, 1878, when the Bridge Street business district of Frenchtown was largely consumed by fire. In 1949, the wood floor was replaced with an open grid steel deck and a single 3 ft 9 in wide
cantilevered sidewalk was installed on the upstream (north) side. from 1987. --> ==See also==