Bailey Island Cobwork Bridge - Harpswell, ME
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 43° 44.970 W 069° 59.306
19T E 420420 N 4844525
This 1,150-foot bridge was built in 1928 with a cribstone design using granite slabs from local quarries sufficiently heavy to withstand wind and wave, while the open cribbing allowed the tide to ebb and flow freely.
Waymark Code: WM1F0C
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 04/23/2007
Views: 35
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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.
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 slabs from local quarries. 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.
The Bailey Island Bridge is believed to be the only surviving granite cribstone bridge in the world.