Last updated: April 21, 2023
Article
The History of Motor Road Development at Acadia National Park
Volcanic fire and glacial ice shaped the landscape of Acadia National Park. Most of the park lies on Mount Desert Island in coast Maine. Early park designers and developers navigated landscape and social difficulties in the development of three distinct transportation systems that interweave throughout the park: motor roads, carriage roads, and hiking trails. Each system is designed to have minimal interactions with the other systems, particularly when it comes to separating cars and non-vehicular traffic. Engineers based many of the routes for these now historic carriage roads, hiking trails, and motor roads on the generational paths laid down first by a millennium of use by Wabanaki people, and later by European settlers.
In the early 20th century, the increase of pressure by automobiles on Mount Desert Island led to the locally-famous 'auto wars.' It might be hard to believe today, but some of the island’s villages banned automobiles in the early 1900s. The bans sparked local battles between those who favored allowing “horseless carriages” and those— including John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—who opposed their use on public roads. The disputes ended in 1915 when the state legislature required all island communities to open their roads to cars. Undaunted, Rockefeller pursued his dream and expanded his carriage road system to provide non-motorized access to the island’s interior. In 1922 he began funding work on the 'mountain road' from Eagle Lake to the Jordan Pond Tea House and continued on various other road portions for the next three decades. Rockefeller and Dorr envisioned a scenic park loop road that would traverse Acadia's scenic beauty. Though they were largely successful in seeing their plans come to fruition, the final 'Park Loop Road' as we know it today is quite different from the original vision.
Below is a brief summary of the development of the main section of the main vehicular network through the park, the Park Loop Road.
Timeline of Motor Road Development
1923-27: Jordan Pond/Eagle Lake Section
Park Superintendent George Dorr originally planned this road in 1922 to open up the interior of park to visitors and to protect against wildlife. When federal appropriations for the road fell through, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. agreed to fund the project. The Jordan Pond/Eagle Lake road connects route 233 near Eagle Lake with Seal Harbor.
1929-1932: Cadillac Summit Road Section
Designed by the Bureau of Public Roads between 1929-32, Cadillac Mountain Road is an extraordinary example of construction in a mountainous terrain. The nearly four-mile road maintains a positive grade for its entire length of and includes spiral transition curves, which were an adaptation from old railroad route up the mountain, to give a smoother ride between the road's straight and curved sections. Guardrails were fashioned by spacing three to four foot angular coping stones along the edge of the road approximately 4 feet apart.
planned 1929; built 1940: Sieur de Monts Section
This section of the road was the most controversial to discuss (see more below). Originally design to run alongside The Tarn, the final layout went around Champlain Mountain, connective Ocean Drive and the Kebo Mountain section with the old park headquarters near downtown Bar Harbor.
1929-1958: Ocean Drive Section
Because much of its proposed route ran cross privately owned land, Ocean Drive took longer to complete than any other section of the Park Loop Road. As Acadia obtained these properties, more segments of Ocean Drive were added. The Ocean Path, a trail running along the road's southern portion, was constructed during the Great Depression by workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps.
1934-1936: Stanley Brook Road Section
Rockefeller constructed the Stanley Brook Road on his own land and then donated it to Acadia. In order to maintain the scenic quality of both the brook and the narrow valley, as well as to alleviate local opposition to the road, Rockefeller hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to help design it. The final route crosses Stanley Brook six times on small, unadorned bridges. This section of road was extensively landscaped by the landscape architect Beatrix Farrand.
1938-1939: Otter Point Section
The 1932 decision to relocate the Otter Cliff Naval Radio Station to nearby Schoodic Point made way for the extension of the Park Loop Road through Otter Point. Rockefeller donated the land for the Otter Cove Causeway and confirmed the design with FL Olmsted, Jr. A memorial to Allesandro Fabbri, commander of the radio station, marks the station's former location.
1940-1941: Paradise Hill Section
One of the last sections of the park motor road system to be completed, the Paradise Hill section of the Park Loop Road was built so that motorists entering the park from Route 3 could avoid Bar Harbor traffic. Although it was constructed by the Bureau of Public Roads, the land for this road was donated by Rockefeller.
NPSPhoto
Ocean Drive
The most recognizable and breathtaking portions of the Park Loop Road is a section of road from Sand Beach to Otter Point known as "Ocean Drive." This section of road was designed specifically to present motorists with a sequence of scenic experiences, including views of Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and the cliffs of Otter Point. For almost its entire four mile length motorists can glimpse the ocean from their automobiles, or are given access to viewing areas at which they can park and look out unobstructed to the sea.So much of the land along its proposed route was either owned privately or by the Town of Bar Harbor, Ocean Drive was the most complicated segment of the Park Loop Road to construct. To gain support for the project, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. built the road's first section in 1929 on an old town road near Thunder Hole. As privately owned land along the route became available to the park, other sections were added. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, Civilian Conservation Corps workers reconstructed the Ocean Path, a scenic Trail Running alongside the southern portion of Ocean Drive. The Bureau of Public Roads constructed the final section of Ocean Drive in 1958 completing the entire Park Loop Road process.
Sieur de Monts Spring
The Sieur de Monts Spring segment of the Park Loop Road was the most controversial in Acadia. The debate began in 1928, when the two men most responsible for constructing Acadia's motor and carriage roads failed to agree on a route connecting the Kebo Mountain section with Ocean Drive. Park Superintendent George Dorr favored running the road to the north of the Sieur de Monts Spring are, and then along the east side of The Tarn. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who had financed much of the park's carriage and motor road construction, wanted it to pass south of the spring along the foot of what was then called Dry Mountain (now Dorr Mountain) and continue down the west side of The Tarn. To settle this dispute, Rockefeller hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
Although Olmsted favored Dorr's route, as news of this proposal became public in 1931, the citizens of Mount Desert Island got involved. Believing that the road would spoil the 'wilderness' character of the area south of The Tarn, some cottagers protested its construction. Others, fearing that such protests would cause Rockefeller to rescinding his offer to build other motor roads, publicly encouraged him by voting to relinquish municipal control of a portion of the old Ocean Drive so that he could proceed with plans to reconstruct that road for the park. The combined effect of these community pressures encouraged both Dorr and Rockefeller to swing the route away from The Tarn and towards Ocean Drive. This road was finally completed in 1938.
Photo by Emma Forthofer/Friends of Acadia
Otter Creek Cove Bridge & Causeway
The triple-arched bridge carries the Ocean Drive segment of the Park Loop Road across Otter Creek Cove, providing a splendid views of the open sea to the south and creek's tidal basin to the north. The cove had been spanned earlier by three county bridges. in 1925, the J.G. White Engineering Company prepared three designs for a replacement structe at the request of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. The designs included structures incorporating bascule and draw beidges to allow boats to continue using the stream, then considered a navigable body of water. Rockefeller abandoned the idea of building the ridge and the present structure was constucted in 1935 by the Bureau of Public Roads. It is the ony solid masonry bridge on the park motor road system; the use of concrete was rejected because of fears of salt water fostering deterioration.
To capture water in the cove for use as a bathing pool, the bridge was designed with internal slots inside the arches for flashing boards which would be used to hold back water at high tide. The boards could be raised or lowered as required to retain the water or allow the pool to be flushed for sanitation. However, he boards were never installed.
Duck Brook Motor Road Bridge - 1952
The last major bridge constructed in Acadia National Park, Duck Brook Bridge is the largest road-related structure in the park and the largest stone-faced concrete arch bridge east of the Mississippi. The structures was planned in the early 1940s as part of the Paradise Hill Road, which would provide a scenic connecting link to the Park Loop Road from Hulls Cove west of Bar Harbor. However, construction was delayed because of World War II, and the bridge work did not begin until 1950. The contractor was the "M&M Construction Company," comprised of W. Robinson Martin of Manchester, Vermont and Harold MacQuinn of Hulls Cove.
The bridge spans Duck Brook's deep ravine on three massive semicurcular arches. An internal concrete frame stiffens the arches and supports the concrete deck. To support the arches during construction, the Timber Structure Company of New York shipped 42 knocked-down prefabricated wooden trusses to the project. The trusses were erected in pairs by a crane without use of traditional centering. Due to the size of the arches, the trusses had to support weights of up to 800 tons. A construction railway, called the "M&M Railroad," was employed to convey hopper cars carrying concerete to the site. The pink granite face stone was obtained from the famed Halls Quarry near Somesville. Some 4,000 tons of concrete, 2,000 tonsof reinforcing steel, and 1,100 cubin yards of stone was used to build the bridge. The bridge was completed in 1953. At a cost of $336,000, it was the park's most expensive road-related structure.
The project was under constrution supervision by the Bureau of Public Roads, US Department of Commerce.
To learn more about the historic motor roads of Acadia, visit our Motor Roads page or check out the Library of Congress records from the Historic American Engineering Record which served as the basis for this article.