Luke:
I'm no expert either. Victor Darnell, in his "Directory of American Bridge-Building Companies" states that there was an unbroken chain of Springfield Massachusetts builders from about 1838 until 1901.
Richard F. Hawkins first worked for D.L. Harris starting in 1853. From there we have:
Harris and Hawkins 1867-1868
Hawkins, Herthal and Burrall 1868-1871
Hawkins and Burrall 1871-1877
R.F.Hawkins Iron Works 1877-1901
(All dates approximate)
If the Tuckerman Bridge truly dates from 1873, that puts it in the Hawkins and Burrall range of dates.
Posting as a comment because the builder SEEMS like a duplicate, but I'm not knowledgable enough to make the call. Would this bridge have been built by R.F. Hawkins Iron Works? Or was this an early example of his solo work and should be a seperate category?
(Paging Chester.)
I do have the ability to merge bridge builders on this website (like James did with the King Bridge Company with variant names of that company). However I don't want to do that without being sure they are the same companies, if its not certain its probably better to leave them separate.