For residents of the St. John Valley, the river was never a true dividing boundary. In 1842, distant governments agreed to divide the U.S. and Canada along the St. John River, but generations earlier Acadians had settled the Valley in French-speaking communities on both sides of the river. These settlements remained culturally united even as political control first passed to England and then was divided between the U.S. and Canada, helping give the Valley its identity as "The Land In Between." Connections across the river continued in daily life: Fort Kent long relied on ferries and on the suspension footbridge built in 1905, and in 1930 its first vehicle crossed a new bridge to Clair, New Brunswick despite the Depression. In winter, people also crossed the frozen river on foot or by horse, sleigh, or motor car. In 2014, the 1930 bridge was replaced by a lower profile concrete span.