Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is an American national park located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park preserves about half of Mount Desert Island, part of the Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, and ...

, largely on

Mount Desert Island Mount Desert Island (MDI; french: Île des Monts Déserts) in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in the contiguous ...

, off the coast of the U.S. state of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, was created in part by land and other donations by

John D. Rockefeller Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...

Between 1919 and 1931, Rockefeller, who was opposed to the introduction of automobiles on the island, personally oversaw the construction of a network of carriage roads, closed to motorized vehicles, on the eastern half of the island, including sixteen granite bridges and two gatehouses. The major portion of this network now falls within the bounds of the national park, and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979. The network of carriage roads is open to the public for non-motorized uses in the summer, including walking and bicycling. In the winter, most of the network is open to cross-country skiing, and a portion of it is open to snowmobiling.

History

Beginning in about 1890, Mount Desert Island became a summer resort haven for a number of wealthy families, including the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Vanderbilts. Despite their efforts to keep the island free of motor vehicles, their presence was authorized across the whole island by 1915. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who had a large summer house on the southeastern part of the island, in response embarked on a major effort to build a network of carriage roads on its eastern half, which would be isolated from the roads open to motor vehicles, and which would provide access to the scenic views of the area. He personally selected the skilled craftsmen who built the roads, bridges, and gatehouses, and directly supervised a significant portion of the work, which took place between 1919 and 1931. The overall design was approved by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. The entire project resulted in the construction of more than of roads, sixteen bridges, and two Tudor Revival gatehouses at the points where the system intersected the public roads. The present bounds of Acadia National Park include of these roads, thirteen of its bridges, and both gatehouses.

Description

Carriage paths and bridges

The carriage paths consist of a network of wide paths, laid out to take advantage of the area's natural terrain, and to provide access to fine views of the area's lakes, mountains, and bays. Foot paths extend from the carriage paths into the woods. The carriage paths are about wide, and are generally surfaced by the National Park Service with fine gravel, with a slight rise at the center to allow for proper drainage. The bridges in the network are all built out of hand-hewn locally quarried granite. They were specifically designed to blend into the landscape in an organic manner, and are sited so that they may be used as viewing platforms for the scenery, and so that they may themselves be viewed. They often include viewing platforms for one or both purposes. The only bridge that has been altered in any significant way is the Eagle Lake Bridge, which carries

Maine State Route 233 State Route 233 (SR 233) is a state highway located on Mount Desert Island on the southern central coast of Maine. Its western terminus is at SR 3 and SR 198 in the town of Mount Desert. It runs for across the island to Bar Harbor, w ...

over a carriage path, and was the subject of an award-winning widening project in 1974.

Gatehouses

The Brown Mountain Gatehouse, also known locally as "The Lodge", is near the southwestern corner of the park on Maine State Routes 3 and 198. It is a small complex consisting of the gatehouse, a caretaker's house, and carriage house, and was designed in the Tudor Revival style by

Grosvenor Atterbury Grosvenor Atterbury (July 7, 1869 in Detroit, MI – October 18, 1956 in Southampton, NY) was an American architect, urban planner and writer. He studied at Yale University, where he was an editor of campus humor magazine ''The Yale Record'' After ...

. It is built of rubble-stone masonry, with occasional bands of precisely-laid dressed stone and brick. The buildings are roofed in polychrome terra cotta tile. The gates are made of cypress wood, and are set in a segmented-arch opening. This lodge, like the one at Jordan Pond, is now used for park service staff housing. On the inside of the gate, away from the main road, there is an expansive area of landscaped lawn. The Jordan Pond Gatehouse is at the southern end of Jordan Pond, where the carriage path network intersects the main park loop road. Like the Brown Mountain Gatehouse, it was also designed by Atterbury and contains similar elements and styling. It is laid out in a more linear fashion, with its elements joined by a masonry fence. The towers that flank the gates are topped by bellcast roofs with terra cotta tile.

References

External links

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...