VIEWPOINT: The Latest Bridge Over Sagg Pond Has Survived Both Weather and Political Winds

By Ann Sanford

Built in 1923, the bridge over Sagg Pond — its 100th anniversary was celebrated on October 14 — radiates a picture of strength. To its friends and visitors, it stands as a triumph over controversy; for residents of Sagaponack, Bridgehampton and their neighbors, it is a symbol of community and history.

What we think of as the bridge itself, with the water flowing underneath, is only about 30 yards long and occupies less than one-third of the “causeway that stretches across the narrows” of the pond. Until 2015, a portion of the span on the Bridgehampton side belonged to the Town of Southampton, but now the Village of Sagaponack owns the entire bridge and its approaches. The weight of this multi-beam structure, with its concrete deck and a road above, is supported by concrete abutments.

Since 1900, pressure on public officials in Southampton Town had grown to replace the unstable bridge, which dated from the 1870s. In 1919, at the end of World War I, town property taxpayers finally allocated $15,000 to build a new structure. The Robbins Construction Company of New York City was awarded the contract and began work in 1922.

During the last 100 years, there have been threats to the integrity of the new bridge that opened in 1923, but they did not come from the Hurricane of 1938 or from an airborne Ferrari pounding its surface during the 1950s road races. They came from the political jurisdictions that sought to modernize it.

In the 1980s, Suffolk County, the owner, planned to enlarge the bridge, an effort that collapsed when the town assumed responsibility for its maintenance and promised to address much-needed structural repairs.

Then in 2013, a decade ago, a determined Southampton Town highway superintendent proposed changes in accordance with his, and New York State’s, concept of improved safety.

Opposition from residents was swift. A public meeting was held where village officials, residents and others spoke out against the plan. They took issue with the town’s goal to widen the road; it would increase speeding, they said, and it would require narrowing a walkway that had been used for generations for fishing. Speakers also opposed replacing the old concrete pillars and iron pipe guardrails with steel ones.

Newspapers recorded the outcry. Said one resident, “You can’t eradicate the hundreds-year-old tradition of fishing.” Another: “The bridge is for the community, not only drivers.” “Preserve our rural fabric!” they shouted.

By 2015, the dispute was resolved: The Village of Sagaponack took ownership of the bridge and would pay for the restoration and ensure that the bridge was maintained.

Besides the debate over repair or upgrade, this centennial raises historical questions about efforts to bridge Sagg Pond.

By the time English settlers arrived in the 1600s, it is likely that Shinnecock Indians had bridged the pond with a causeway, extended by logs roped together. That bridge provided a narrow path, enough for a horse.

But in the 1680s, about 340 years ago, the town contracted my ancestor, Ezekiel Sandford, a wheelwright, to build a cart path bridge: The contract and a brief project description are in the town records.

The purpose of this bridge, built in 1686, was to link the growing settlements of Mecox and Sagaponack. Together, these communities were named the “Parrish of Bridgehampton” by the New York Colony Legislature in 1699.

Historians have also noted that more than one bridge built here has disappeared over time: They succumbed to the ravages of nor’easters, hurricanes and lack of maintenance. But this bridge has outlasted them all.

With stewardship, it should survive well into the future.

Ann Sandford, a resident of Sagaponack, read the above remarks at the Sagg Bridge centennial celebration on October 14, 2023.