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Can You Name This Landmark Bridge and the River Beneath It?

A substantial rebuild, completed a few years ago, changed the bridge’s look and design, allowing taller ships to travel the tidal waters below.

Where in Maine, November 2022
Photograph by Benjamin Williamson

Some 85 years ago, the woman for whom this bridge is named took a job as secretary for the commission that oversaw its construction and, later, its upkeep. During the bridge’s early planning meetings, the 21-year-old took minutes; 50 years later, she retired as the commission’s longest-serving employee. In 1987, 47 years after it was dedicated, the bridge was renamed in her honor. The 2,800-foot span once was Maine’s only vertical-lift bridge — one with a section that rises to allow ships’ passage — with its motors at the top of its towers. But a substantial rebuild, completed a few years ago, changed the bridge’s look and design, allowing taller ships to travel the tidal waters below — which are also spanned less than a mile up- and downstream, giving rise to this bridge’s non-secretarial local nickname.

If you can name this landmark bridge and the river beneath it, submit your answer below. We’ll feature our favorite letter in an upcoming issue — and send the winner a Down East wall calendar.


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Down East Magazine, November 2022