This summer, I went to a yard sale in deepest Springs, where I found an assortment of architectural plans tossed in a cardboard box. Lo and behold, one was for the remodeled bridge at Pussy’s Pond. Luckily, the woman running the sale was happy to give the plan to me after I explained my position as a local history librarian.
Seen here is the plan for the bridge over Pussy’s Pond that was completed in 2013. The first was built in 1995 by the East Hampton chapter of Waterfowl U.S.A., a charitable organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands. By 2009, the bridge had been declared unsafe due to storm damage and vandalism. Fund-raising efforts were undertaken to build a new one, and ground was broken in October of 2012.
Getting funds for the new bridge took a village, and in 2009 the entire Springs School fifth-grade class attended an East Hampton Town Board meeting to lobby for it. Larry Penny, the town’s natural resources director, and Zachary Cohen, chairman of the nature preserve committee, came together to apply for building permits, and with the help of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, the Accabonac Protection Committee, and Tracy Frazier, a Springs School teacher, money was raised successfully to finance the project. The bridge was completed in January of 2013, and a celebration to dedicate it to the youth of Springs was held on Jan. 27 that year.
If you are a yard sale enthusiast and you find something pertaining to East Hampton history that you would like to donate or have scanned and returned, please get in touch. You may just have a treasure on your hands.
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Julia Tyson is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection.
