Fort Knox on the Penobscot River across from Bucksport

Control of the Penobscot River, almost directly west of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, made it important to both the British and the Americans.  It was the scene for the fledgling break-away colonies first major naval defeat in 1779, and the British regained control during the War of 1812.  Thus, it was a logical location to place one of about 40 forts started as part of the Third System of defense in 1844.  Construction on Fort Knox continued for almost 25 years, but as the Civil War drew to a close, concerns about a sea-born invasion waned and the fort’s barracks were never completed.

Interior of Fort Knox from the rooftop battery

Doorways connect the unfinished enlisted men's quarters

Fort Knox is a massive granite-walled fortification with mounts for 135 cannon, some in batteries and some in casemates.  A diagram showing the layout of the fort can be found here.

The exterior granite walls are indicative of the fine quality of workmanship

The largest number of troops ever stationed at the fort was 575 when a Connecticut regiment lived outside the walls in tents for a month during the Spanish-American War.  During the Civil War 20 to 54 troops were garrisoned at the fort.  For the best part of fifty years, after construction stopped in 1869, a non-commissioned officer served as the sole guardian of the fort.

Battery B

Series of vaulted-ceiling casemates

Only 74 cannon were ever placed on the 135 mounts

This will probably be my last post about my trip to Maine, so let me close with one of those quintessential Maine seaport views.  This one was taken from the roof of the fort’s casemates.

Bucksport and the Penobscot River

Waldo-Hancock Bridge over the Penobscot River

In 1931 the Waldo-Hancock Suspension Bridge began carrying Route 1 traffic over the Penobscot River.

Waldo-Hancock Bridge

Now on the list of National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks, this bridge was one of two concurrent bridge projects to first use prestressed wire rope strand cables.  It was also the first suspension bridge built with the Vierendeel truss.

In 2006 a new bridge was completed.

Old and new bridges over the Penobscot

The new Penobscot Narrows Bridge is the only observatory bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest in the world at 420 feet.

The observatory is at 420'

The obelisk towers may remind you of the Washington Monument.  That’s because they were designed to pay homage to the local granite industry which harvested granite from nearby Mount Waldo for the construction of the monument.

Penobscot Narrows Bridge

From the observatory one gets a bird’s eye view of nearby Fort Knox, which I’ll discuss in my next post.

Fort Knox from the observatory

Doesn't it remind you of the Washington Monument?

The old and the new from the tower

The new bridge does have its problems though.  One day I saw an article in the Bangor Daily News about how the elevator tends to stop working–especially in high winds, and each 911 call costs the local community $1,000.  On October 10th, the elevator got stuck twice–once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Bridges over the Penobscot

Thanks to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Acadia NP has 45 miles of pathways designed for motor-free travel in some of the most scenic valleys of the park.  Whether on a bike or your feet, you won’t have to huff and puff up any steep grades, although some are more than the 2-3% of railroad grades.  In the summer, one can actually travel the roads in a horse-drawn carriage.  In the winter, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers use the roads.

Your carriage awaits!

The paths are roads in the sense they are 16 feet wide with a 6-8 inch crown and wide culverts that insure good drainage. 

On the Carriage Road around Witch Hole Pond

Carriage Road along Eagle Lake

The roadsides were carefully landscaped and groomed, and many coping stones were placed as guardrails or to define the roadway.

Coping Stones

One of the delights of traveling the carriage roads is finding the next hand-built stone-covered bridge.

Three-arched Duck Brook Bridge

The Duck Brook Bridge’s central arch is 30 feet wide, while the two flanking arches are 20 feet.  Corbelled, semi-circular balconies provide viewing platforms

Duck Brook Bridge Viewing Platform

for taking in the scene along Duck Brook.

Duck Brook, scene 1

Duck Brook, scene 2

The triple-arched Stanley Brook Bridge carries a carriage road over Stanley Brook, the road connecting Jordan Pond to Seal Harbor, and the Seaside Trail.  Note how this less symetrical, more rustic-looking bridge differs from the one over Duck Brook. 

Stanley Brook Bridge

A multi-million dollar restoration of the carriage roads and their bridges began in the 1990s as an experiment in public-private partnerships for the National Park Service.  Maintenance of the roads is a continual battle against nature, but the Friends of Acadia contribute thousands of hours of manual labor to clear debris and keep the culverts running.  After widening the Eagle Lake Bridge to accommodate a busy cross-island road, work continues on restoring its stone facing.

Eagle Lake Bridge

As to churches, there are a lot of Congregational churches, most of which are simple white structures which still have the original box pews.

Saunders Memorial Congregational Church

Bar Harbor Congregational Church

Somesville church interior

 Every once in a while I came across one that didn’t quite fit the mold.

West Gouldsboro Union Church

I did visit one that had stained glass windows.

Stained glass, Congregational Church, Searsport

Of course, the most famous stained glass windows are the ten Tiffany windows in St. Savious’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor.  Personally, I preferred the more modern window by Susan Dunlop (1966).

Susan Dunlop, 1966, St Savior's Episcopal, Bar Harbor

Many villages have areas which have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  One of my favorites was Cherryfield which made it onto the list on October 1, 1990.  The walking tour includes 81 sites and structures.  The oldest home in the village was built for General Alexander Campbell, a lumberman and Massachusetts State Senator from 1791 to 1796, in 1790.  (Maine did not gain statehood until 1820.)  His home is still occupied by his descendants.

Gen. Alexander Campbell House, Cherryfield, 1790 Federal

 Local architect Charles Allen designed this second empire house with a curving porch and bell-cast mansard-roofed tower for a Campbell descendant in 1875.

Frank Campbell House, 1875, 2nd Empire, Cherryfield

 Alexander Campbell’s grandson Samuel built this Queen Anne home in 1883.  The current owner’s have their own website about Campbell Hill.  I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to see the Santa Fe; maybe on another trip.

2nd Samuel Campbell House, Cherryfield, 1883, Queen Anne

 The William M. Nash Home is the largest in the Cherryfield Historic District and is considered to be one of Charles A. Allen’s masterpieces.  Allen didn’t start from scratch to build this home; he was hired to update and expand a temple-style Greek Revival dwelling.

William M. Nash House, 1840-1888, 2nd Empire

 Unlike Cherryfield, many of Camden’s historic homes are now used to provide tourists with overnight accommodations.  Of course, in this case, many (including the Whitehall Inn where I stayed) were originally built for that purpose. 

Whitehall Inn, 1834

Maine Stay Inn, Camden, 1802

1805 Federal-style home, Camden

One of the most photographed places on Mount Desert Island is a simple white bridge in Somesville.

Somesville bridge

Another view of the Somesville bridge

Not all of the buildings which I found interesting in DownEast Maine were in such good shape.  This building is now a community arts center. 

Seamark Deer Isle High School

Old barn on Blue Hill Peninsula

Montpelier"s semi-flying staircase

By 1871, seventeen years after the last Knox abandoned the house, Montpelier had fallen into such a state of disrepair, it was razed to make way for a railroad station.

Montpelier 1871

Then in 1929 the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution gained sufficient financial support to build a replica of the mansion on a knoll at the edge of town.  The new Montpelier lacks the grand river view of the original, but it contains a remarkable number of items that belonged to the family plus copies of architectural elements salvaged when the original home was destroyed.

Montpelier 2010, street-front view

About twenty years after Knox built his home in Thomaston, Judge Thomas Ruggles built a new home in Columbia Falls.  His home was much more modest in size than Knox’s and it lacked the land and river view,

Ruggles Home, Columbia Falls

but almost one-third of the Ruggles Home was devoted to a flying staircase.

Ruggles staircase

Another architectural element common to both homes was the classic Federal-style front entranceway with two side lights.

Ruggles Home front door

Montpelier's classic Federal-style front door

I was also impressed by the non-flying staircase at the Barncastle Inn where I stayed in Blue Hill.

Barncastle Inn Staircase, Blue Hill

Let’s start with one of the most recognizable symbols of Maine–the lighthouse.  There are more than 60 along the coast, not all of which are on land or easily viewable.

Marshall Point Light

Owl's Head Light

Bass Harbor Light on Mount Desert Island

Egg Rock Light--the only square lighthouse in Maine

Petit Manan Light

Winter Harbor Light

West Quoddy Head Light--the easternmost most in the USA

This last light is on Campobello Island in New Brunswick across the Lubec Narrows from Lubec, ME.

Mulholland Point Light

In addition to visiting a number of lighthouses, I toured the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland which had a number of very interesting exhibits including one of the best I’ve seen on lighthouse lenses.

2nd Order Fixed Flashing Fresnel Lens from the Petit Manan light (1855-1972) weights two tons

3rd order Fresnel lens from Matinicus Rock Light (1923-83)

4th order Fresnel lens, possibly from Buffalo, NY

6th order Fresnel lens made in Paris, used in San Francisco area

Elizabeth Ann in Port Clyde

The wind was blowing (note the flag), and the seas were rolling.  Many of us huddled on the upper deck hoping the fresh air would keep our stomachs under control during the one-hour ride to the island.

Double-crested Cormorants and a Great Black-backed Gull

 This 1.75 mile by .6 mile piece of isolated rock at the entrance to Penobscot Bay had been noted in the journals of Samuel de Champlain (1604) and John Smith (1614).

John Smith plaque on Monhegan Island

English traders and fishermen began using the island soon thereafter, but there were never many year-round, long-term residents until 1807 when Henry Trefethren and his two sons-in-law Josiah Starling and Thomas Horn bought the island for 300 pounds.

Sketch map of Monhegan Island

 As of the 2000 census, the island had a resident population of 75, living in 46 households with 21 families.  The island’s population swells in the summer with both tourists and summer people who own many of the 177 housing units on the island.

Monhegan Island shrouded in fog

Arriving at Monhegan Island

Some of the houses are available for rent–if you qualify.

House for Rent Weekly--No Water Wasters!

Most of the houses are relatively modest, especially in comparison to the “cottages” of the gilded age at resorts like Bar Harbor or Campobello Island.

Summer home on Monhegan

A modest cottage on Monhegan

Even the homes of the rich and famous are fairly modest here.

Wyeth home on Monhegan

There are a handful of “hotel” accommodations including the classy Island Inn,

Island Inn is in the background

 the very modest Monhegan House,

Monhegan House

and the Trailing Yew where we stayed.  The main building shown below was built in 1850; over the years 10 other assorted buildings were added to the complex.  Some of the rooms at the Trailing Yew have no electricity, but most of our group were housed in an annex with electricity and a shared bathroom for each floor which had 4-5 rooms.  The hostess rang a bell on the lawn to summon everyone to breakfast and dinner.  The food was generally very good, although I got a little tired of baked haddock with some rather blah flavored butters. 

Trailing Yew

Trailing Yew's Office

To be continued–

Cabin at Temple Tiger

and there was a central lodge for eating and congregating. 

The lounge. The dining hall was in a separate building.

Like the best of the lodges in Peru, electricity was rationed to specific hours of the day.  The food was excellent; the service attentive. 

The rooms were fairly open to allow the evening breezes to cool the cabins. 

In Peru, some of the camps featured cabins with private baths, but not all.  This bathroom was by far better than the best in Peru. 

I especially liked the floor

And the sink had counter space!

The camp was nicely situated with a viewing deck 

which provided a place for viewing the sunrise. 

The primary activity at Temple Tiger is elephant riding. 

Riding through the phanta

 The elephants go where you would never go.  The riding platforms enable you to spot wildlife among the tall grasses.  And, the elephants don’t scare off the wildlife.

This one seems to have a rooftop garden & there's no laundry hanging outside

Taken from the roof of my hotel

A more general rooftop view

There were few buildings that I thought might be single family dwellings.  Perhaps this one?

Style was singularly lacking even in buildings that were offices or schools.  The following was a true rarity.

Of course, part of the problem is construction methods.

Now I did see one unique building–an urban chicken house.  Whether it was an old apartment house converted or built for housing chickens is unknown.

The building on the right was filled with chickens & smelled like it!

While my hotel the International Guest House was nothing special on the outside, it had some nice features.

The entrance gate was closed at night

Breakfast was served in the garden and one could always sit here, read, or drink a beer

Most of the restaurants I ate at were just a couple blocks away in the heart of the Tamel tourist district.  One of my lunch favorites was the garden cafe in the Pilgrim’s Book Shop.

You can’t miss the five-tiered Nyatapola Temple; it’s the tallest in all of Nepal.  Built in 1702 during the reign of King Bhupatindra Malla, it sustained little damage during the 1934 earthquake.

Nyatapola Temple

Like other temples in Bhaktapur, the stairway is flanked by a series of guardians.

Guardians of the Nyatapola Temple

The figures at the bottom of the stairway are the legendary Rajput wrestlers Jayamel and Phattu, but I don’t know which is which.

Jayamel or Phattu?

Then there are elephants,

Elephant guardian of Nyatapola Temple

lions, goddesses, and beaked griffons with rams’ horns.

Griffon guardian

The far less showy temple to Bhairab sits along the side of the square.  This three-story rectangularly-shaped temple started out simple enough with one story in the 17th century.  A second was added in 1717 and a third when the temple was rebuilt after the 1934 earthquake.  Bhairab has only two small lion guardians, but they are brass instead of the usual stone.

Bhairabnath Temple, Bhaktapur

Bhaktapur’s annual New Year’s festival–Bisket Jatra–is celebrated in the Taumadhi Tole in mid-April.  Since I was visiting on March 29, preparations had already begun, and the reassembly of the chariot of Bhairab was nearing completion.  You can see a few pieces still laying in front of the Nyatapola Temple in one of the above photos.

Chariot of Bhairab used in Bisket Jatra, a New Year's festival

During the festival, men pull the chariot through the streets and use it for a tug of war between the eastern and western sectors of the town.