Fairport, NY...August 15, 1983 ...... The remains of a Revolutionary War Bridge, which crossed Lake Champlain connecting Fort Ticonderoga with Mount Independence in 1776, has been found. Two modern day explorers, Jim Kennard and Scott Hill, located the bridge last week while surveying the lake with sophisticated side scan sonar equipment.
The bridge was constructed to connect the eastern fortification on Mount Independence, and an existing road to Castleton, Vermont with Fort Ticonderoga on the west side of Lake Champlain. The bridge was over 400 yards long and consisted of 22 piers with 12 foot wide floating pontoons between them. To prevent a British navel invasion to the south of the fort, a heavy timber boom was laid along the north side of the bridge and beyond that a massive iron chain was stretched across the lake.
The sonar, used by Kennard and Hill, produced an almost photographic like record of each of the 22 piers, several of which rise up 7 feet above the bottom while others are barely discernable. Each pier is spaced approximately 65 feet apart. The lake is only 22 feet deep in this area, but the murky waters here only allow SCUBA divers to see a few inches.
Kennard and Hill have been privately surveying various areas of Lake Champlain over the years to discover some to the forgotten maritime history of the lake. Last year the explorers donated their time and equipment to survey the southern end of Lake Champlain for the Champlain Maritime Society. The sonar team located 21 shipwrecks during the survey.
In addition to locating the bridge at Fort Ti, a partially buried vessel was also located near by and has yet to be fully explored.