Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge construction, ca. 1938
Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
The only bridge to Deer Isle was opened in 1939. Until then a ferry service, begun in 1792 by Nathaniel Scott and operated by his descendants for 150 years, transported people and goods.
Paved roads and automobiles came late to the island because a busy network of steamboats connected with mainland locations. However, with steamer service declining and tourism increasing, by the 1930s the time had come to build a bridge.
Holton D. Robinson and David B. Steinman, who had built the Waldo-Hancock Bridge over the Penobscot River in 1931, designed the 1,088-foot suspension bridge over the Eggemoggin Reach.
Their challenges were numerous: wind and stability issues, substantial tides, a necessary minimum 85-foot underclearance midway across a 200-foot channel to accommodate tall masts, a required early summer completion date necessitating winter work, and a limited budget.
The project used a number of problem-solving innovations, including off-site prefabrication of the forms for the tower pedestals and cofferdams, utilization of pre-stressed twisted strand cables and new connection methods, and construction of a steep approach and shorter-than-usual vertical curve at the center to provide clearance.
The bridge, financed as a Depression-era public works project, was completed in March 1939. Vehicles paid a toll for many years.
- Title: Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge construction, ca. 1938
- Creator: Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company
- Creation Date: circa 1938
- Subject Date: circa 1938
- Town: Deer Isle, Sedgwick
- County: Hancock
- State: ME
- Media: Glass plate negative
- Dimensions (cm): 12.75 x 17.75
- Local Code: LB2007.1.106490
- Collection: Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company
- Object Type: Image
For more information about this item, contact:
Penobscot Marine Museum
PO Box 498, 5 Church Street, Searsport, ME 04974
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