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Acadia Roads and Bridges
Acadia National Park, Maine
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ACADIA TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENTS | |
| 2-3 million years ago | Glaciers descend from Canada and cover Mount Desert Island, carving the mountains and lakes of Acadia National Park. | |
| B.C. | Indigenous people live year round on the island which they call Pemetic, the sloping land. | |
| A.D. 1604 | French explorer Samuel Champlain "discovers" Pemetic and renames it Mount Desert Island, after its barren peaks. | |
| 1761 | European colonists settle year round on Mount Desert Island and began to develop transporation routes. | |
| 1776 | Year-round residents vote to construct the island's first public road, running from Cromwell Harbor to Hulls Cove. | |
| 1844 | Thomas Cole, leader of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, visits. He and other painters soon popularize the scenic attractions of Acadia. | |
| 1850s | The Brewer family constructs a buckboard wagon toll-road along part of the old Wabanaki foot path to the summit of Cadillac Mountain. | |
| 1880s | Heyday of the "Cottager" era on Mount Desert Island. Steam-powered cog railway constructed to summit of Cadillac (Green) Mountain. | |
| 1903-15 | Controversy erupts over the introduction of autos to the island. A movement led mainly by summer residents bans cars in 1909. 1915 state law permits autos in all towns on the island. | |
| 1911 | John D. Rockefeller, Jr. begins constructing first carriage road on his Seal Harbor estate. | |
| 1916 | National Park Service created. George B. Dorr succees in establishing Sieur de Monts National Monument. | |
| 1919 | Sieur de Monts National Monumenet is expanded and redesignated as Lafayette National Park. | |
| 1922 | Park superintendent Dorr and Rockefeller begin constructing first motor road in Acadia NP, the Mountain Road from Eagle Lake to Jordan Pond Tea House. | |
| 1924 | Carriage road pits Rockefeller against wealthy island cottagers who wish to restrict its extension. Interior Secretary Hubert Work allows construction to proceed. | |
| 1929 | Lafayette National Park renamed Acadia National Park. | |
| 1932 | Cadillac Mountain Road completed by the Bureau of Public Roads, providing motorists access to highest summit on island. | |
| 1939 | Day Mountain Road, last of the Rockefeller carriage roads, is completed. | |
| 1952 | Paradise Hill motor road completed by Bureau of Public Roads, providing direct access to the Park Loop Road bypassing Bar Harbor. | |
| 1958 | Final segment of the Park Loop Road completed under National Park Service "Mission 66" program. | |
| 1990s | NPS and Friends of Acadia undertake multi-year rehabilitation of the park carriage road system. Federal Lands Highway Program rehabs motor road segments. | |
| 1994-95 | Historic American Engineering Record, NPS, documents park roads. | |
| Introduction | Acadia | Blue Ridge Parkway | Chickamauga and Chattanooga | Colonial Parkway | Generals Highway | George Washington Memorial Parkway | Great Smoky Mountains | Mount Rainier | Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway | Shenandoah's Skyline Drive | Southwest Circle Tour | Vicksburg | Yellowstone | Yosemite |