Keystone Arches

The Keystone Arches are a series of stone arch bridges constructed in 1840 when the railways of eastern Massachusetts and Albany, New York were connected. The arches are located in the Middlefield-Becket Stone Arch Railroad Bridge District – a 3.7-mile stretch of railroad right-of-way in which there are ten bridge crossings, including nine over the west branch of the Westfield River. The bridges were built to carry Western Railroad trains over the Westfield River between Boston and Albany. This section of track was the most expensive the company constructed, costing over $1 million in 1840. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. A hiking trail providing viewing points to the lower seven bridges was opened in 2004. All of the bridges are viewable via whitewater-appropriate watercraft from the river.