RITBA honors original Newport Pell Bridge workers

NEWPORT, R.I. (WLNE) – Seventy former Newport Pell Bridge workers and their families gathered in Jamestown Friday to celebrate their accomplishments for the bridge’s 50th anniversary.

Construction began on the bridge in 1966 and it opened to traffic three years later.

“It just seemed to progress right along, to my amazement – how fast something that big could go,” said bridge worker Kevin Caisse.

The workers spent the afternoon reminiscing and looking at old photographs of when the bridge was being built.

“It’s an opportunity to thank them for the heroic deeds that they did in building the Newport Pell Bridge,” said RITBA Director Buddy Croft.

Many of them said they never thought about the fact that they were building something to stand the test of time, and that they were simply trying to make a living.

Some are now in their sixties, and others are in their nineties.

And none predicted just how iconic the bridge would still be all these years later.

“It’s just unbelievable that it has and that you were just a tiny part of it,” said bridge worker Mike Gallogly.

“It changed my life. It was probably the most important thing in my life,” recounted bridge worker Anthony Branca. “I must’ve done a good job, there it is right? It’s still there!”

RITBA says they will continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary through the end of this year.