Le Petit Pont

Le Petit Pont footbridge connected French-Canadian workers in Topsham Heights with home, church, school, and work across the river in Brunswick. As part of a broader migration in which an estimated 1 million French-speaking Canadians relocated to the U.S. between 1840 and 1930, many were recruited by Cabot Mill and lived in worker housing here while crossing the "swinging bridge" to reach the Catholic church and school in Brunswick and to go to work. In Brunswick census figures, French speakers accounted for 40% of the population in the early 1900s, reflecting the strong presence of the "French Quarter" community spanning the river. Built in 1892 by John A. Roebling's Sons Company, the same firm that designed and built the Brooklyn Bridge, le petit pont later had its original timber-framed towers replaced with steel, was partially destroyed by flood in 1936, rebuilt in its superstructure by the Works Progress Administration, and renovated again in 2006.

Topsham, Maine · United States