Bailey Island Bridge - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bailey Island Bridge (also called the Cribstone Bridge) is a historic bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

in the town of Harpswell

Harpswell, Maine

Harpswell is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, which is geographically within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. The population was 5,239 at the 2000 census. Harpswell is composed of land contiguous with the rest of Cumberland County, called Harpswell Neck, as well as several large and small...

within Cumberland County

Cumberland County, Maine

Cumberland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of 2010, the population was 281,674. Its county seat is Portland, and is the most populous of the sixteen Maine counties, as well as the most affluent. Cumberland County has the deepest and second largest body of water in the...

in the state

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

of Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

History

For many years, the residents of Bailey Island, Maine

Bailey Island (Maine)

Bailey Island is an island in Casco Bay, and a part of the town of Harpswell, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the island had a year-round population of 400.-History:...

advocated that a bridge be built to connect their island with Orr's Island. The town of Harpswell, Maine

Harpswell, Maine

, which encompasses both islands, turned down the request. However, when the Maine Legislature drafted a law allowing the state and counties to fund bridge construction, a plan emerged to build such a bridge. A contract was signed in 1926, with construction beginning on the Bailey Island Bridge in 1927 and finishing in 1928. The engineer for the project was Llewelyn N. Edwards, bridge engineer for the Maine State Highway Commission.

Design

Design of the 1,150-foot bridge was complicated by the tides in the area known as Will's Gut. It was decided to build a cribstone bridge using granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

slabs from local quarries on the border between Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth, Maine

Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, located approximately ten to fifteen miles north of Portland. Its population was 8,349 at the 2010 census....

and Pownal, Maine

Pownal, Maine

Pownal is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,491 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. Pownal is home to Bradbury Mountain State Park....

. Granite slabs were considered sufficiently heavy to withstand wind and wave, while the open cribbing allowed the tide to ebb and flow freely without increasing tidal current to any great degree. Some 10,000 tons of granite were used in the project. A concrete road (now part of Route 24) was built on top of the cribstones.

Additions and Recognition

A sidewalk

Sidewalk

A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...

was added in 1951 and guard rail

Guard rail

Guard rail or guardrail, sometimes referred to as guide rail or railing, is a system designed to keep people or vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limits areas...

s in 1961. On July 19, 1984 the Bailey Island Bridge was recognized as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1975. The Bailey Island Bridge is reported to be the only granite cribstone bridge in the world.

In 2009 and 2010, the bridge underwent reconstruction to repair cracked or sheered stones. During the repairs a 1,000 foot temporary bridge was placed alongside the cribstone bridge so that traffic could continue without disruption. On November 20, 2010, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and parade took place to celebrate the reopening of the bridge. The restored bridge maintains the dimensions of the original, and the replacement stones were obtained from the same quarry in Yarmouth that supplied the original.

History

Design

Additions and Recognition

See also

Further reading