Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Penobscot Narrows Bridge




On Friday, September 26, we took a short road trip to Bucksport, ME, to see the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Fort Knox.  (Did you know there are two Fort Knoxes?)   Tom and I had crossed this bridge on our way to Bar Harbor and wanted to take the opportunity to see this marvelous bridge from its observation deck, 42 stories above the river.  The engineering is amazing.  It's one of three bridges with an observation tower--the only one in the U.S.  The other two are in Thailand and Slovakia.  It's a cable-stay bridge.  The entire bridge deck literally hangs from cables strung through two suspension towers.  











Fort Knox was built to defend a very strategic bay which provides inland access up the Penobscot River.  It was occupied by the British twice--once during the Revolutionary War and once during the War of 1812.  It's built of granite with two circular staircases carved from granite that are still in nearly perfect condition.

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