THE remnants of the old Franklin bridge here that was destroyed by a big flood in 1953, to which Dagupeños have a special attachment, will be preserved as a memento of the past to the present and future generations.

This was assured during a dialogue called by the city’s Heritage Commission with officials of the city engineer’s office and Toyo Construction, a Japanese contractor which is now building a P903 bridge across the Pantal river.

The dialogue was necessary to ensure that Toyo Construction will not touch the remnants of the old Franklin bridge which stands a few meters from the bank of the Calmay river.

Along with many other historical sites in Dagupan, the remnant of the Franklin bridge was declared as a heritage site by the National Historical Institute (NHI)
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The new Pantal bridge, funded by a soft loan from the Japanese government, is being constructed on the spot where the Pantal and Calmay river meet.

Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez was invited to the dialogue by Heritage Commission officer Carmen Prieto to share his thoughts on how to preserve the destroyed important landmark in the city.

Fernandez said the old Franklin bridge, believed to have been built in 1920, used to be the only bridge link between the former town of Dagupan to the capital town of Lingayen till it was destroyed by the 1935 flood.

In that big flood, a large portion of the Franklin bridge was washed out to the Lingayen Gulf. Also washed away was the San Albertos Magnus College, one of the earliest Catholic institutions in Dagupan City and Pangasinan.

The old Dagupan-Lingayen provincial road was thus abandoned and replaced with the present route via Binmaley.

Two bays of the old bridge will however be necessarily destroyed to give way to the concrete footing of the new bridge.

But an official of Toyo Construction told Heritage Commission officials not to worry because they will restore whatever portion of the old Franklin bridge that will be destroyed by them. (PNA)