Where Is The Ducktrap Bridge?

So, where does the name 'Ducktrap' come from? What does the Ducktrap Bridge have to do with Genealogy?

The Village of Ducktrap is the oldest part of the Town of Lincolnville which is located at the southern corner of Waldo County on the Maine Coast, approximately midway between Portland, Maine and Mt. Desert Island, Maine.

Although Ducktrap is no longer an active village with stores, schools, and industry, in the late 1700's Ducktrap was a thriving coastal village, populated by mostly Revolutionary War Veterans and their families. Most of these families had come north from Massachusetts. Among these early settlers was a man named John Wade. John Wade is my 7th great-grandfather, and the earliest reason I can conclude that caused my interest in Genealogy. Although Ducktrap isn't the home to all my ancestors, and especially not to my wife Tiffany (Laverty's) families, I continue to reference back to it as the starting point of my genealogy interest. Therefore it is the feature background to my website

What About The History Of The Bridge?

Many people are often awed by the architecture of the Ducktrap Bruidge. Below, I will share my essay on the history of the bridge.

  

The Ducktrap Bridge has taken on many forms over the years

THE HISTORY OF THE DUCKTRAP BRIDGE

The first settlers of the Ducktrap Harbor area of Lincolnville, Maine arrived there shortly after the Revolutionary War. Many of the early settlers built cabins on either side of the “Trap” as the harbor is often called. For many years, travel by land wasn’t common. The woods were thick and the nearby ocean provided a more convenient path of travel. So, by the year 1801, people wishing to travel across the Ducktrap River did so just above the harbor, near where the river meets the sea. The standard practice was to wade across the river at low tide, and at high tide either row a boat across or swim.

One of the oldest known stories of travel across where the Ducktrap Bridge is now, occurred on July 4, 1801. Judge William Crosby, on his first visit to Lincolnville, hired a young boy to swim his horse across the river.

On January 26, 1802, General George Ulmer signed a petition and sent the same to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting a bridge be built. Maine of course at this time was part of the state of Massachusetts. The Commonwealth granted permission for a bridge to be built under the following conditions: “The bridge shall be well built, of suitable materials, at least twenty feet wide, with sufficient rails on each side, and with planking or boarding three feet high from the floor of said bridge for the safety of passengers, and the whole shall be kept in good, safe, and passable repair. George Ulmer and his associates should receive three cents for each foot passenger, for each man and horse ten cents, for each horse and chaise, sulky or riding chair twenty cents, for each sleigh or sled, wagon drawn by two beasts, fifteen cents, for neat cattle singly or in droves, two cents for each, and for sheep or swine one cent each, and to each team, one person and no more, shall be allowed as a driver to pass free from toll, and at all times when the toll gatherer shall not attend to his duty the passengers or carriage may pass free of toll.”

After 1803, the bridge was carried away in several storms and then always rebuilt again. Over the years, the area around Ducktrap continued to grow. Soon there were stores and mills, and homes scattered about on both sides of the river. It became more and more likely that a resident of the Ducktrap area would need to cross the bridge on a daily basis. The local residents began to complain of the tolls the bridge required and one day became so dissatisfied, that they pushed the toll keeper’s house and toll keeper into the river.

This early Ducktrap Bridge was built close to the water and was often flooded by high tides. In 1821, the proprietors of Duck-Trap Bridge finally realized the need for a new, more reliable bridge. So, they petitioned the new State of Maine government for permission to rebuild a new, stronger bridge. This was approved on March 8, 1821, and shortly after a stronger two span bridge was built. This bridge was built by piling a large amount of rocks and granite in the center of the river and then involved stretching two long log truss sections between the shore and the center pile of rocks and granite. For the next forty years, tolls were collected at the new bridge. While local residents were still dissatisfied with the tolls, they were at least happy with their bridge. The only problem with this new bridge was that it was built very close to the water. Often times, at high side, water would squeeze up through the planking in the bridge floor. However, local children loved the crude bridge. Because it was so low to the water, and the land on either side of the bridge grew quickly in elevation, they were able to enjoy the speed the hills brought their bikes. It was said, that the children could coast from one hill, down across the bridge and back up to the top of the other hill, then back down and half way up the other hill before so much of a breath was wasted on peddling.

With steady upkeep supported by the tolls, the bridge continued to survive for another 87 years. Around the time of the Civil War, the tolls were discontinued to great satisfaction of the area residents. About this time, the state had begun to take on a new roll in managing highways and bridges. In 1908, the old two-span bridge was taken down and a new span bridge replaced it. This new bridge was built with granite supports and steel girders. This new bridge was necessary to support the arrival of a new mode of transportation, the automobile. While much stronger than any bridge the residents had before, it was a noisy bridge. When automobiles crossed the bridge, the sound of their tires rolling over the old wooden planking echoed across the harbor like the sound of thunder. This bridge was also about 10 feet higher than the old bridge and was twice as wide, having a forty-foot width. This Ducktrap Bridge was built a little higher up than it’s predecessors.

In 1918, a passenger bus line running between Belfast and Camden crashed into the wooden railing, plunging into the water at high tide. One life was lost. All other passengers escaped without any serious injuries. As a result of this terrible accident, an engineer was brought in to design a safer bridge using new, modern materials. So, just as the soldiers came home from the First World War in 1919, a new more modern cement bridge was built by the Cyr Brothers. This new bridge was higher up still than it’s 1909 predecessor and the span was 56 feet long and 22 feet wide. This new bridge continued to serve its purpose until 1932, when construction of a new highway through Lincolnville prompted the construction of yet an even more modern bridge. This new highway was to become US Route One, stretching the distance between Fort Kent, Maine and Key West, Florida. Once construction of the new bridge of 1932 began, it was decided that base of the 1919 bridge was still worthy to support the new bridge. However, faster automobile and now truck traffic through the little community had prompted a more desirable approach to either side of the bridge. Engineers determined that if they raised the base of the bridge another 22 feet, they could almost remove the steep hill effect on either side of the bridge. Because of this planning, and the fact that the base of the old bridge was still intact, a new bridge was designed using arches to support the upper deck. This design has lead to the current bridge design we see today. According to those that remember the new bridge of 32’ being built, all rock walls within a few miles of Ducktrap were raided. They were used along with huge amounts of fill to build a natural support around the arches of the bridge. In doing this, the bridge was raised so high that the fill covered over what remained of the local mills, stores and other buildings that stood near the bridge crossing. Gone forever was the natural mouth of the river where it flowed into the harbor and then ocean.

After 1932, the bridge became a popular place for teens, mostly summer residents, to spend time swimming. There isn’t a local alive who hadn’t jumped off the lower part of the bridge, the base of the 1919 bridge. A few have jumped off the top deck, though only at high tide. Even then, some of the bigger fellas have been known to touch bottom on their downward plunge. Many a young local girl has had her first kiss under the bridge. Words of love and feelings were painted on the under supports of the bridge over the many years through the next several decades.

Growing traffic on US Route One pounded the bridge daily. With heavy loads of seafood from Canada, retail goods for Bangor and a daily convoy of jet airplane fuel for the Bangor International Jetport, the Ducktrap Bridge did its job and took on all loads In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the State of Maine began to look into building a Route 1 by-pass that would take the current highway out behind the local coastal mountain range. By this time, summer tourist traffic had all but congested traffic between Thomaston and Belfast on a daily basis. The Ducktrap Bridge was strong, but hadn’t been built to take such a daily pounding by the now much large semi-trucks and large RV’s that traveled it each day. Local children had become more cautious climbing under the bridge as it was common for small chunks of concrete to crumble off the now 60 year old bridge.

Many residents did not support the Route One bypass as they felt it would take valuable tourist dollars away from the mid-coast area and further east to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. That debate still continues today. However, when the movement of the time was squashed, preventing further proceedings on the by-pass, little thought was given to the old bridge by the State of Maine. All the state knew was that the bridge was old and deteriorated, and needed to be replaced with a new one. A local group, lead by one of Ducktrap’s resident artists, Chris Osgood, set out to change the state’s mind.

Over a few year period of time, Chris Osgood and his group persuaded the state to either repair the current bridge, or build a new one exactly like it. Build a new one exactly like it was decided and so in 1999, the old bridge was hauled away by dump truck in a matter of days. Some locals stopped by to take a piece of the bridge as a memento. One local woman even took a big junk of the concrete that had old graffiti on it from her husband expressing his love for her decades earlier when they were first dating.

While construction progressed, traffic was re-routed over a temporary steel structure and being at the height of summer, and the only time of year in Maine that road construction can happen, the traffic was often backed up for miles.

The contract to the build the new bridge was awarded to J.P. Carrara & Sons of Middlebury, Vermont. Carrara specialized in working with pre-cast concrete in building bridges. In the year 2000, after completing the new bridge, the ACI New England Chapter even awarded it’s concrete award in the category of “Heavy Construction” to Carrara specifically for the project of building a new bridge over the Ducktrap River in Lincolnville, Maine. The structure, built by Carrara, which supports two lanes of Rt. 1 traffic, was artfully designed to recreate the historic bridge, complete with columns, arch spandrels and corbels. Notable features of the 122-foot, three-span bridge include the use of pre-cast box beams to support the non-load bearing cast-in-place columns. Also, the pre-cast arch spandrels are designed to be self-supporting and span from pier to pier with an exposed aggregate finish, made of local stone produced at the Carrara plant. The individual corbels are bolted to the arch spandrels. The main desk is also composed of butted pre-cast box beams.

Today, the new 122 foot long span looks almost identical to its predecessor. While the lower part of the bridge is now more cosmetic than structural, local residents continue to gleam with joy having successfully convinced the state to rebuild the bridge they had loved so much for years. One local summer resident jumped off the top deck of the new bridge on the first warm high tide of the summer after the construction had been completed and exclaimed with joy that it was an even better ride down than before on the old bridge.

In today’s busy, fast paced way of living, it takes only 3 seconds to cross the Ducktrap Bridge. If you are busy tuning your car radio or even talking on your cell phone, you’ll more than likely miss the view as you travel across the bridge. This is the same bridge that two hundred years ago, took several minutes to negotiate across and was the foundation of a community. If you have time, slow down and take a left just after the bridge on the left when heading south. Follow the old dirt road down to the small State owned park where you can enjoy in full view what many local residents have enjoyed for years in all shapes and sizes, the Ducktrap Bridge. A bridge for another hundred years.

Researched by Capt Justin D. Ford

Bibliography:

Ducktrap – Chronicles of a Maine Village by Diane Roesing O’Brien

Lincolnville As We Remember Vol II – The Lincolnville Historical Society