Ice Pond and Brick Pond

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A plane makes it's final approach to T F Green in Warwick passing over a freighter taking on fuel.

Today's ride takes us to the East Bay Bike Path.  Thirteen miles stretching from East Providence to Bristol R.I.    It's a ride that many take every day and one has to wonder how many know the history that this MUP passes.   After 15 years of riding this route, I saw for the first time the signs pointing out the historical places.  I don't know how long these have been sitting on the side of the trail waiting patiently for someone to read them.  There are times that even us bicyclists move too fast and don't get a chance to smell the roses as they say.  Today, one of the plaques got my attention.  Reading one of them slowed me down on my ride and I ended up reading all of the plaques I came upon.

EBBP built along the old railway.

One such places is Brickyard Pond.  Making bricks involved digging clay by hand using picks and shovels from holes 12-14 feet in diameter.  Usually about two feet below the surface, clay was struck.  The clay was carried by oxcart to sizing machines which formed the bricks, and then to the kilns or brick ovens.  It took two weeks to fill the huge kilns and three days of constant fire to cure the bricks.

 

Echo Pond is a pit that was exhausted of it's clay and in 1918 the Willis E Blount Ice Company was created to provide ice for the Blount Oyster Company in Warren R.I.  During the cold winters when the ice was 6 inches thick, workers used long saws to cut the frozen water into thick rectangular blocks.  Read the history of the ice company in the photo below.

I had also often past by and photographed a lighthouse but never bothered to investigate it's history.  Today I saw the plaque.

Pomham Rocks Lighthouse (also known as Pomham Rock and Pumham Rocks) is located on a large rock on the east side of the Providence River. The square, two-story, wood-framed keeper’s residence has a mansard roof with the tower and lantern rising from the center front of the house.
The tower may appear to be hexagonal due to the beveled corners on its upper part, but it is actually square. The window frames on the upper story have Victorian-influenced scrolling. The lantern room was reached by a wooden stepladder in the second-floor watch room. The small, separate stone building also found on the rock is the station’s oil house.

During the ride I saw a German/American club off the path.  I know that Brussia Dortmund was playing Real Madrid for the Champions Leagues semi final match and the game was in progress.  I poked my head in the "members and guests" only door to see if the game was on.  A friendly bunch of regulars were having their 3PM pick me ups and when I asked if they had the game on one said, the Yankee game?  They had no idea the a German team was playing the the biggest sporting event in Europe.   Across the path sat an Italian club and they had the game on two TV's.   Go figure.

Here are a few more photos from today's ride on the quiet East Bay Bike Path (EBBP) in Rhode Island.