Bridgwater/Bridgewater Connections

One of the early posts on this blog related to this letter "To the inhabitants of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, New England, America from the residents of Bridgewater, Somersetshire, England" regarding the abolition of slavery.

Recently, these two Bridgewaters once again came together in a joint Black Lives Matter protest
The event was covered by the Bridgwater (no "e") Westover Web. 

I often see things that indicate that Massachusetts was the first state to abolish slavery in the United States, but rarely is it mentioned that it was the first state to legalize it as well. More information about the history of slavery in the Bay State can be found here.

Bridgewater Canal

Image: The Bridgewater Canal

Both of us have been spending part of our home-bound time in 2020 both teaching online and learning online. In addition to some DuoLingo lessons in French, I am taking an edX course on the development of cities, from Harvard of all places.

In yesterday's lesson, I was pleasantly surprised to find a new Bridgewater! See what economist Ed Glaeser has to say about the geographic importance of Lord Bridgewater's ambitious project that ultimately made the inland city of Manchester a major port and a hub of the Industrial Revolution.

We are indeed fortunate that the canal is still maintained, more for recreation than for industry these days, by a consortium of private and public entities operating simply as Bridgewater Canal. The organization is in the process of restoring access to the entire length of the original towpaths. This kind of connectivity project is similar to the Nunckatessett Greenway project I am working on in the three Bridgewaters of Massachusetts and to trail-development projects over greater distances that I have been covering in my Land Protection and Advanced Global Thinking classes.

We very much look forward to visiting when we attend a Covid-postponed wedding in the UK next year. We have added the canal to our Bridgewaters Project map, of course. The snapshot below shows the canal, nearby Bridgewater Hall and the oddly spelled original town of Bridgwater. Look for more about all of these when we make the journey next year.

Sorry, not clickable. Detail from our
Bridgewater Project map