narrow roads Archives

A Bit of History for this Bridge

Don’t you just love a mystery? The origins of this bridge go back before the Town of New Portland kept financial records. The only thing we can know for sure is that by 1866 there was a Wire Bridge in New Portland.

It was right around this time that 4 bridges were built in Maine, with timber-on-granite tower structures at each end, a wooden plank roadbed in the middle, and cables (or “wires” – hence the name) holding everything up.

The other three wire bridges have since been torn down and replaced, and bits of this one has been restored and preserved over the years. The planks of the roadbed have been replaced at least once, but it’s still the same wire holding everything together.

Wooden Planks and wire struts

The bridge spans 198 ft. Between those 198 feet are timbers and towers that have carried 150 years of horses, carriages, Model T’s, pick-ups and minivans through the splendor of deep woods Maine. And as far as anyone can tell, it’s the only one of its kind left and I drove over it! I watched a car pass over the bridge before I gave it a try. Bouncy, bouncy , bouncy. Oh yeah, had to give it a try. It actually felt much more stable driving over it than walking. You just don’t feel the bounce that you see when you watch a car drive over it.

walking across the wire bridge in New Portland Maine

If You Plan to Go

Follow the signs off Rte 146 in North New Portland, you will eventually come to Wire Bridge Rd.

New Portland is in the Maine woods, about half way between Bangor and the Canadian border. Only about 725 people live there, and every one of them could probably point you to their showpiece – the old Wire Bridge.

Credits

Many Thanks to the Atlas Obscura for the history of the Wire Bridge

Well as you can see from the title I not only survived the nose to nose standoff, I managed to come back down the mountain side and get back to the safe driving.

The first car would not give an inch. I climbed a boulder to get as far off the road as I could. Finally the car I was facing gunned the engine and shot past me. My car immediately slid of the rock and settled back onto the road but there was still one more car that had refused to back up.

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With much arm waving and shouting the spectators finally got him off to the side of the road so I could just squeak past. I didn’t dare look at the drop off to my left or I’m sure I would have fainted dead away.

Having passed that obstacle I finished my drive to the top where I found a food truck with a small parking area. There were lots of cars parked and everyone was milling around. I pulled in too. It seemed as good a place as any to bring my heart rate back down to something close to normal.

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I made up my mind that I was not leaving that parking area unless it was to go back the way I came. I’d had quite enough of the Road to Hana. I didn’t care that I hadn’t found the park I was looking for. Another time maybe.

It was almost 30 minutes before we saw cars beginning to climb the road on the opposite hill. Everyone ran for their cars including me. I tacked onto the end of the little caravan. But about 100 yards down we came to a stop. Finally a man came back to tell us all to back up. As the last in line I was the first to start to back up.

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Still shaken from the first experience I wasn’t doing too good a job so our traffic director hopped in and had me back in the parking area in short order. It was obvious that he had a lot of experience backing up. Another 20-30 minute wait and we all started down again. This time he had the upcoming cars pulled over and our line of about 15 cars all managed to pass without incident. I was the last one and I watched the cars head on up the road once I had passed by.

The Road to Hana is beautiful but as I learned the hard way, also dangerous and treacherous. I don’t want to do a repeat of this anytime soon!