Fire/Rescue News - Everyone Has a Story: Horseshoe tells history of Bridgeton firefighters

Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 | 0 comments

A routine construction project turned into a historical discovery for members of the Bridgeton Fire Department.

While replacing a concrete pad to eliminate a tripping hazard, workers found an old horseshoe from when the fire department used horses to pull its vehicles.....Continue Reading

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Lt. Greg Poeppel, 42, a Bridgeton native and resident of Pittsgrove Township who has been a firefighter for 24 years, said the horseshoe was located under the former hinges of the bay door, which originally worked similar to a barn door.

Poeppel estimated the horseshoe was used before or around 1926, when the City Council purchased the department’s first mechanized apparatus. It could date as far back as 1877, when the department purchased its first fire truck, a Silsby horse-drawn steam fire engine.

“It was so rusty, we didn’t want to mess with it or try to do anything with it,” Poeppel said. “We’ll display it in the firehouse somewhere in the near future. It was great to find something like that. Our only regret is that the cement truck came too quick. If we had more time to excavate that area, I think we would have found more interesting stuff.”