The Burning of Troy

The Bridge That Started the Great Fire of 1862 

A cow started the great fire of Chicago. An earthquake started the great fire of San Francisco. But Troy’s Great Fire was started by an old covered bridge. 

From New York Bay to the head of navigation at Waterford, it was the first bridge ever built across the Hudson. Nearly a third of a mile long, it was wide enough to accommodate a railroad track, a carriage road, and a footway. 

On Saturday, May 10, 1862, it nearly destroyed the city of Troy. A gale was blowing from the northwest, when a spark from a locomotive lodged in the shingles on the roof. In a twinkling, the entire bridge was in flames and the wind had carried burning embers to all parts of the city.  

The fire started at noon. By six o’clock in the evening, seventy-five acres in the heart of Troy had been “swept over as by the hand of a destroying fiend.” 

“Tears and despondency,” says a historian, “could not recall the burned property which had been slowly accumulated by the incessant industry of many years.” But by the latter part of July, 181 buildings had been rebuilt, and by November, all but a few of the burned lots were covered with new and superior structures.  

Once again, the famous “enterprise of the Trojans” had not failed. And this bank is proud to have played a part in rebuilding the stricken city. Today, 77 years later, the Manufacturers National joins with other Troy banks in looking forward to a great industrial and commercial failure.