The Carlton Bridge, a Hulking Relic in Bath, Maine

A plain four lane bridge belies what crossed the river here before it was known as the “Kennebec”, when the flowing water was called “Sagadahoc”.  Sagadahoc was navigated by canoes, rafts, horses riding in oar-driven ferries, and epic schooners built in the shipyards along the shore amidst the flowing tide and the seasonal ice floes.  No, the new bridge hardly notices that there is a river below, and the passengers traveling by at fifty miles per hour hardly know there is water under them, or if they do, which way the water is flowing.  The 2,000 foot crossing lasts mere seconds in a sealed, climate-controlled bubble on wheels, and is tied seamlessly to the roads approaching it from both sides.

Mayan’s Ferry began crossing the Sagadahoc at the settlement of Bath, Maine some time around 1718.  The ferry was large enough for one passenger and a horse, and was propelled by oar. In 1834, the Sagadahoc Ferry Co was chartered, and by 1837 they provided state-of-the-art steam powered ferry service.  Over the years, the ferry boats grew in size and sported fanciful names; the Hocomock was locally known as the “Hinky-Dink” and the oxymoronic “Governor King” was named in honor of William King, the first democratically elected Governor of the State when it separated from Massachusetts in 1820.  King was buried about a mile and a half from the Carlton Bridge in Oak Grove Cemetery in 1938.

Steam driven freight and passenger trains also used ferries to cross the river until 1927.  Heavy loads, ice, strong currents and tides made the passage treacherous. 

By 1920, coal burning steam powered ferries running every 30 minutes conveyed 50,000 vehicles over the course of each year at the crossing.  Still, their efficiency and capacity was not enough to meet the demand from summer travelers, who would sometimes have to wait for an hour in line in order to make the 30 minute crossing.  Now, at least 20,000 cars cross the Kennebec each day on the four plain lanes of the Sagadahoc Bridge during the summer tourist peak.

Finally, after more than 200 years, ferry service was replaced by the Carlton Bridge, which opened as a critical link of Route One on November 15, 1927.  (The ferry was permanently closed the same day.)  The electrically powered lift gate bridge was a technological marvel, carrying both railroad and vehicular traffic on separate decks across the Kennebec River.  The concrete substructure and the steel superstructure cost $3M in 1927 (almost $48 million in 2022 dollars).  It was named for named for Maine State Senator Frank W. Carlton.

Dr. J.A. Waddell of New York City was the Consulting Engineer for the Carlton Bridge Project.  The lift mechanism carried Waddell’s name on the patents. Waddell is recognized for developing the design for high-lift bridges.  I will leave it to the engineering nerds to debate as to whether Waddell was the Don Corleone of high-lift bridges, but he gets a lot of cred from many sources. High- lift bridges are fanciful, to me, evoking scenes from Thomas the Tank Engine, with a two lanes of car traffic motoring on the upper deck of the bridge, a steam train simultaneously crossing the River on the single track deck below while, steam ships chug along against the current of  the Kennebec below.  Trains were so important to the Maine economy in the 1920’s that they got to cross several weeks before cars and pedestrians got their chance.

Waddell designed another Route One span, the Washington Street Bridge over the Housatonic River in Connecticut, which opened in 1921.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Bridge_(Connecticut) 

Charles Allen acted as Resident Engineer for the project, very much in the shadow of Waddell.  McClintic- Marshall of Pittsburgh built the 9,000 ton superstructure and hauled it onto the bridge piers.  That 9,000 tons includes 65 tons of wire and 175 tons of electric motors, pulleys, and other machinery to operate the lift.  Erection of the ambitious structure was arduous.  Pier workers, nicknamed “sand hogs” experienced decompression sickness (“the bends”) during construction of the foundations.  One bridge pier was excavated to a then-record 118’ below mean tide.  425 days of toil were filled with challenges from ice, current and tide until the bridge was completed.

95 years later, the rusting, hulking high-lift bridge sits silent, except for the lowering of the lift gate to allow an occasional train to cross over.  The roadway has been disconnected at both ends and “No Trespassing” signs are too numerous to count, a few from now-defunct railroad companies are so faded as to be almost illegible.  Osprey have taken up residence on the cover of a cable pulley high atop one of the lift towers. (More at: http://www.osprey-watch.org/nests/1566 .)  The Carlton Bridge carcass is one last testament to the final decades of steam power along the Kennebec River.

Route One was rerouted after 73 years on the Carlton Bridge.  The Sagadahoc Bridge was opened in 2000, replacing the vehicular and pedestrian portions of the Carlton Bridge at a cost of $46.6M.  The new bridge, a concrete segmental box girder span, is 2,973 ft (.563 miles) long.  The new bridge design is not revolutionary the way the high lift gate bridge was in 1927!  But still, it earned four honors, including the Design Build Institute of America’s 2001 Design Build Excellence Award.  It was the first bridge designed and built by the State of Maine.  Part of their design process included a “charette” with Bath residents, something akin to a town meeting for bridge design, and a far cry from the process the technowizards used to mastermind the Carlton Bridge.  Their input mostly came from their slide rules.