Wayland A to Z:  Bridle Point     

Bridle Point was a little known and historically insignificant peninsula that projected out into the Sudbury River meadows from the eastern shoreline close to the Route 20 bridge. When the early settlers were trying to decide where to build a bridge across the Sudbury River, Bridle Point did not seem to be the best place to do that and the Old Town Bridge site farther north was chosen instead.

The first settlers in this area built primitive shelters along Bow Road, digging into the protective sandy slope that faced the warm sun.  Nearby, a long, narrow ridge ran across the old Raytheon parking lot and terminated at Bridle Point offering another housing site. Although land was allotted for houses along the ridge, no foundations have ever been discovered.  A path was laid out that reached the present Russell’s Garden Center.  Eventually this entire section was incorporated into the Braman estate, laid out in the nineteenth century along Old Sudbury Road.  Bridle Point eventually became the anchor for the 1820 bridge (Route 20 Bridge) built to connect South Sudbury.

In 1954, approximately thirty feet of sand removed from the western half of the ridge created a large, level field for Raytheon Company to build a laboratory after convincing Wayland’s voters of the wisdom of re-zoning the area “limited commercial.” (see Zoning)

There is little on today’s landscape to remind us of Bridle Point.  Most of the hill is gone and the peninsula is lost in the brush along the river’s edge.  Only the ancient maps and documents honor its name.