Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge
About this property
The Bailey Island Bridge (also called the Cribstone Bridge) is a historic bridge in the town of Harpswell within Cumberland County in the state of Maine. For many years, the residents of Bailey Island, Maine, advocated that a bridge be built to connect their island with Orr's Island. The town of 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 of the 1,150-foot-long (350 m) bridge was complicated by the tides in the area known as Will's Gut. It was decided to build a cobwork bridge, using granite slabs as cribstones, acquired from local quarries in nearby Yarmouth, Maine. The slabs 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. A sidewalk was added in 1951 and guard rails in 1961. The Bailey Island Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975; on July 19, 1984, it was recognized as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. 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 sheared stones. During the repairs, a 1,000-foot-long (300 m) 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. List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Maine List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine National Register of Historic Places listings in Cumberland County, Maine Maine Bridge History Archived 2006-05-09 at the Wayback Machine Kathleen Clemons Photography of Bailey Island Bridge "The Cribstone Bridge". Explore Maine. Remember ME! Media. 2007. 13-minute documentary video describing the history and location of the bridge. Bailey Island Cribstone Bridge at Bridgemeister.com Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. ME-5, "Bailey Island Bridge, Bailey Island, Cumberland County, ME", 16 photos, 2 color transparencies, 3 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge listed on the National Register?
Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 27, 1975.
What type of historic resource is Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge?
Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge?
The period of significance for Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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