Lyr. Add: CHARLESTON BRIDGE IS BROKEN DOWN
American, c, 1786.

Charleston Bridge is broken down,
Dance o'er my lady Lee;
Charleston Bridge is broken down,
With a gay lady.

How shall we build it up again?
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Build it up with silver and gold,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Silver and gold will be stole away,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Build it up with iron and steel,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Iron and steel will bend and bow,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Build it up with wood and clay,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Wood and clay will wash away,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Build it up with stone so strong,
Dance o'er my lady Lee, etc.

Huzza! 'twill last for ages long,
With a gay lady.

Song of Charleston Bridge, as printed (probably about 1786) in the chap-book, "Mother Goose's Melodies."
"Charlestown Bridge, over Charles River, connected Boston with Cambridge and other suburban towns, before that time onlt accessible by ferry... The bridge was "dedicated" July 17, 1786. ...
"The exact verbal correspondence, and absence of the original mode of playing, show that this version of the song, and consequently the rhymes of the pamphlet called "Mother Goose's Melodies," were not taken from the lips of Americans, but reprinted from English sources." The pamphlet containing the song was obtained from a pedlar in Plymouth, Massachusetts, by the father of Mrs. R. W. Emerson, early years of the 19th c.