I suspect that, armed with a little bit of information, one could find bits of Troy’s manufacturing history in every state of the union. Here from the Library of Congress is a view of the base of a cast iron tower on the Bidwell Bar Suspension Bridge & Stone Toll House, near Lake Oroville in Butte County, California. The casting was made by the Starbucks Iron Works of Troy for what was, in 1856, the first suspension bridge west of the Mississippi. Apparently the structure was originally at the fork of Feather River, then moved to the Oroville site. When the site was inundated for a new reservoir in the 1960s, the 100-year-old structure was dismantled and warehoused, then reassembled in 1977 overlooking the reservoir.
The Starbuck brothers were pioneers in Troy’s stove manufacturing industry in the 1820s, and it is they for whom Starbuck Island is named. That’s the island that the Green Island Bridge actually connects to; Green Island itself is no longer an island.
Follow the link for contemporary views of this lovely bridge, along with its full history.
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