To Thomas Jefferson from DeWitt Clinton, 5 June 1805
From DeWitt Clinton
New York 5 June 1805
Sir
I have seen a project of a Bridge over the Navy Dam at the Wallabocht on L Island. From my knowledge of the situation of the Navy Yard and the Country generally I can confidently assure you, that this erection will not in the least injure the public property & that it will greatly aid the general convenience. I beg leave therefore to solicit your prompt & favorable interposition. I have the honor to be Yours respectfully
DeWitt Clinton
An early decision is important to the progress of the Work.
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “President of the U.S.”; endorsed by TJ as received 8 June and so recorded in SJL.
project of a Bridge: on the same day that TJ received the letter printed above, he received one dated 4 June, not found, from the Walleboght and Brooklyn Toll-Bridge Company, a firm recently incorporated by the state of New York to build a road between Bushwick and Brooklyn by way of a bridge over the mill pond at the U.S. navy yard. On 10 June, the company began advertising for a contractor to complete a 1,400-foot-long wooden bridge. The previous March, Congress had authorized the president to grant permission to the corporation approved by the New York legislature to build such improvements (, 2:330; Laws of the State of New-York, Passed at the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Legislature [Albany, 1805], 378-93; New York American Citizen, 10 June; TJ to Robert Smith, 9 June).