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- Item 66623
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Description
The Causeway Bridge on Park Loop Road in the Otter Cove area of Mount Desert Island was built across the cove over the years 1938-1939 by builders J.M. Francesca 7 Co. and Sammons, Robertson & Henry. The bridge connects Otter Point with the Blackwoods section of Acadia National Park and follows a gradual curve along the sand bar upon which it was built. It is a 215-foot three-span masonry arch deck bridge with slots in the arches that were originally intended to be plugged up with board to hold back water, allowing for a shallow swimming area, but the boards were never installed. With the arches open, tidal flows can pass between the inlet and the sea. The engineers working on the bridge, supervised by Leo Grossman of the Public Roads Administration, thought the exposed concrete would deteriorate in salt water and faced it with quarry-faced granite.
Settlers in the Otter Creek community first began to construct a bridge over the cove in the 1880s, but it was destroyed in 1889 by a storm before completion. After a series of bridges were built in the area, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed various surveys to determine the best location of a bridge and consulted Frederick Law Olmsted to review the findings. Though Rockefeller withdrew from funding the project at Otter Cove, the recommendations put together by Olmsted and Rockefeller were consulted as plans for the causeway were completed by the Bureau of Public Roads, and Olmsted continued to approve plans and suggest revisions throughout the process.
The caption reads, "Viaduct over Otter Creek, showing Champlain Mountain, Acadia National Park, Mt. Desert Island, Me."
The Tichnor Brothers printing company published this type of postcard circa 1930-1945.
About This Item
- Title: Viaduct over Otter Creek, Mt. Desert Island, ca. 1935
- Creator: Tichnor Bros., Inc.
- Creation Date: circa 1939
- Subject Date: circa 1939
- Location: Mount Desert Island, Bar Harbor, Hancock County, ME
- Media: Linen texture postcard
- Dimensions: 9 cm x 14 cm
- Collection: The Tichnor Brothers Collection
- Object Type: Text and Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
People
Other Keywords
- Acadia National Park
- Bridges
- Inlets
- Islands
- Otter Creek
- Parks
- Postcards
- Postcards--Maine
- Roads
- Viaducts
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