Private investors built the first bridge at this site across the Passagassawakeag River in 1806. Known as the Lower Bridge and made of wood, it featured a drawbridge that allowed schooners to travel up the river as far as the wharfs at City Point. In June 1920, three days before construction was to begin on a new concrete and granite bridge, a truck carrying movie films broke through the draw. The new bridge, known as the Veterans Memorial Bridge, was dedicated to the veterans of WWI by Gov. Percival Baxter on October 8, 1921. Passagassawakeag is a Penobscot Indian word meaning "Sturgeon-His Place" or, more descriptively, "the place for spearing sturgeon by torchlight."