Old Time New England, The Bulletin of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Vol. XI. No. 2, October, 1920, Serial No. 22  Pages 88-89

The  photo in the original did not scan well as you can see by clicking on the attached thumbnail.  The photo below is from the 1880 brochure on the town bicentennial but taken from the opposite side.

 THE CHOATE BRIDGE, IPSWICH, MASS.  

This bridge, spanning the Ipswich River in the center of the town of Ipswich, undoubtedly is one of the oldest bridges in the country supported on arches of stone.  The quantity of stone used in its construction is considerable, and much of it appears to have been rough stone taken from the fields and pastures, for it shows no finish at the joints.  Of course a careful selection was made of the more suitable for forming the arches, yet, when we consider the material used, it is quite wonderful that so graceful lines could be built upon with such accuracy. The arches are low, suggestive of the Norman type, and aside from their outline there is no attempt at architectural design.

There was a footbridge across the river as early as 1635, or only two years after the settlement of the town, but it was not until 1647 that a cart bridge existed at this location.  In 1764, the earlier bridge was found too narrow for the increased travel, and the present bridge was built at a cost of £996.10.6  3/4, the County of Essex assuming one-half of the expense. But differences arose in meeting "the Committee's extraordinary charge for Care and Trouble etc." in connection with the construction of the bridge. There seems to have been some suspicion of mild "graft," which was indignantly repelled by the Committee. Col. John Choate was chairman, and his account was scaled down to £13.6.8, whereupon he gave his services without charge.

Colonel Choate, the builder of the "Choate Bridge," was a member of the Provincial government for about thirty-five years. He commanded the 8th Massachusetts Regiment at the siege of Louisburg, and on various occasions was a Commissioner representing the Province in both military and civil affairs. His services in the Great and General Court in drafting letters to the Agent of the Province in England, and in preparing "Addresses," show him to have been a man of letters as well as affairs. In 1764 he was treasurer of the County of Essex and his home was in Ipswich. The plan of rebuilding the bridge in stone was his own, and it seems to have failed of strong support among his fellow townsmen. The people did not believe that a stone bridge could be made to stand on that soil, and an inspection today of the low ground on which one of the abutments rests shows that their want of confidence does not seem unreasonable. The final success of the builder is the more remarkable when it is understood that Colonel Choate probably had no practical knowledge of the construction of an arch in stone. He undoubtedly had seen at the fortress of Louisburg in Cape Breton, short arches constructed under the direction of French engineers, but his undertaking  probably was based upon a theoretical construction outlined in some early volume on engineering.

The distrust of some of his townsfolk seems to have become embalmed in a tradition that has come down that when the timbers supporting the arches were removed of an October day in 1764, the Colonel had carefully tethered his horse close by so that he could quickly mount and ride away in case the bridge should fall, as many were predicting. But the Rev. T. F. Waters, the historian of Ipswich, affirms that "even a suspicion of such a casualty is a libel on the intelligence of our highly cultured Town," and so there the matter rests.

Before the bridge was finished, although passable, a blind man from the neighboring town of Rowley came to the bridge one day and recited in the presence of Colonel Choate and the bystanders, the following lines that he had composed :

Behold this bridge of lime and stone!

The like before was never known

For beauty and magnificence,

Considering the small expense.

How it excels what was expected,

Upon the day it was projected!

When faithful men are put in trust,

They'll not let all the money rust.

But some advance for public good

Is by this fabric understood;

And after this it will be wrote

In honor of brave Colonel Choate.

It was his wisdom built the same,

And added lustre to his fame,

That filled this county with renown,

And did with honor Ipswich crown.

Colonel Choate was one of the Judges of the Court of General Sessions, and after his death, the Court ordered in 1792, that "the County Treasurer shall procure the word CHOATE to be engraved before the word BRIDGE on the corner stone of the Bridge over the Ipswich River," and "Choate Bridge" it was before and has been ever since. The bridge has been widened on the eastern side, but the western parapet and central pier, shown in the accompanying illustration, probably never have been disturbed.

Choate Bridge