Within Acadia National Park in Maine there is a 45 mile / 72 kilometer series of what are known as carriage roads (dirt and gravel roads). They were constructed between 1913 to 1940 at the request of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874-1960) mostly before the national park even existed.
Rockefeller was a philanthropist from the famous Rockefeller family who made their money predominately from the oil business. He later donated 10,000 acres of land for use in the national park which included the carriage roads (the national park was first established in 1919 as Lafayette National Park and renamed Acadia in 1929). The roads were and still are intended for hiking, bicycles, horse riding and horse-drawn carriages (cars are not allowed on the carriage roads) and they have been described as “the finest example of broken stone roads designed for horse-drawn vehicles still extant in America”.
A beautiful feature of these carriage roads is the impressive stone bridges that cross the various streams within the park. This particular carriage road stone bridge crosses the Jordon Pond Stream within Acadia National Park and is known as the Cobblestone Bridge. The bridge was constructed in 1917 and is the only one in the park to use rounded stones instead of just cut stone. There is a nice trail along the stream from Jordon Pond House that is well worth taking and the view is of course fantastic.
Stunning stone masonry
Beautiful isn’t it?