By the Numbers

The Waldo-Hancock Bridge, called the “Most beautiful steel bridge” in 1931, had towers 206 feet high, a length of 2,040 feet, a height of 135 feet above the Penobscot River, and an 800-foot main span, and it cost $846,000, or about 12 million comparably. It opened to traffic on November 16, 1931, its dedication ceremony on June 11, 1932, was attended by more than 4,000 people, tolls ended and its bond was paid off on October 31, 1953, its deck was replaced in 1961, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and cable strengthening work took place in 2000 and again in 2002-2003. In June 2003, 308 wire breaks were discovered, leading to the decision to build a new bridge; it closed to traffic on December 30, 2006, demolition began on August 10, 2012, and demolition was complete on June 31, 2013. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory, the world’s tallest public bridge observatory and Maine’s first cable-stay bridge, has towers 447 feet high, a length of 2,120 feet, a height of 135 feet above the Penobscot River, a 1,161-foot main span, and a cost of $85,000,000. After the June 2003 decision to build a new bridge, groundbreaking took place on December 3, 2003, the bridge deck met in the middle on September 14, 2006, it opened to traffic on December 30, 2006, and the observatory opened on May 19, 2007; the span used 180 segment units, 331 miles of epoxy-coated strand, 31,000 cubic yards of concrete, 1,020,000 pounds of steel reinforcing rods, and the total bridge weight was 126,000,000 pounds.

Prospect, Maine · United States