The Gulf Stream Trestle

by Charles Francis

A Maine engineering wonder

It was late in the afternoon when an inspector for the Somerset Railroad spied the rope dangling from a support timber of a step on the Gulf Stream Trestle. It was a shiny rope that looked as if it had been recently purchased. It swayed in the wind that almost always blew through the deep Gulf Stream Gorge. The end of the rope was rough and frayed. Then he noticed a neatly folded coat lying in the shadow of the track. Looking down into the depths below the spidery, steel legs of the trestle, the inspector was just able to make out the twisted shape of a figure next to one of the concrete piers. Had the Gulf Stream Trestle taken a life? Not bothering to attempt a descent from the trestle, the inspector jumped onto his handcar and hightailed it as fast as he could go to the nearest doctor. When the doctor and his nurse reached the bottom of the gorge, they found a lumberjack gasping out his last breath. A length of rope was around his neck. The Gulf Stream Trestle had seen its only suicide.

The Gulf Stream Trestle on the Kineo Branch of the Somerset Railroad was one of the great wonders of the Maine north woods. Spanning a distance of seven hundred feet over the one hundred and twenty-five-foot deep Gulf Stream Gorge, it allowed the railroad to carry tourists in luxurious Pullman cars through one of the wildest and most inaccessible sections of Maine. The Kineo branch of the Somerset Railroad had been built primarily to carry summer visitors to Kineo Station at Rockwood, where they transferred to the boats of the fabulous Kineo House on Mount Kineo for a vacation.

The Somerset Railroad was the creation of John and William Ayer, father and son respectively. Chartered in 1860, the Somerset was to link the farms and mills of the upper Kennebec Valley to the railway terminus at Waterville. As originally conceived, it was to pass into the hands of the Maine Central Railroad, which purchased fifty thousand dollars worth of Somerset stock in 1868. This did not happen, however, until 1907. This was due, in part, to the

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Ayers’ sense of proprietorship as well as their idea that the Somerset might become a part of a giant international rail system linking Wiscasset with the Province of Quebec. This scheme might actually have come to pass had it not been for the Panic of 1873. Prior to the Panic, several other railroads had been chartered in Maine along the proposed route, and forty miles of track had been laid in Canada going from Quebec City towards Maine. Even with the demise of their great plan, the Ayers were able to build one of the most utilized small railroads in the State of Maine, linking towns like Madison, Embden, and Bingham to markets in the southern part of the state, and building the spectacular Gulf Stream Trestle on the Kineo Branch.

John Ayer was the first and only president of the Somerset Railroad. His son, William, was its manager and chief engineer from 1881 until it was absorbed by the Maine Central.

In 1874 the Somerset laid its first track from Oakland to Madison. The money for this construction came from the fifty thousand dollar stock purchase by the Maine Central and a stock purchase by the town of Madison. This section of the line was an immediate success with Madison businesses like the Madison Woolen Mill, area quarries and farmers utilizing the line for shipping freight. John Ayer proceeded to interest towns beyond the Madison terminus to invest in the railroad. In 1875 tracks were laid to North Anson. The next step was to extend the track to Embden. To accomplish this, that little town of barely three hundred people borrowed enough to purchase forty thousand dollars worth of Somerset bonds. It took seven years, however, for the line to finally reach the town. The faith of Embden citizens in the Somerset never wavered even when they had to raise special appropriations to pay the interest on the bonds.

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The railroad was finally extended to Bingham, bypassing Solon, which had refused to invest in it. (Solon was ultimately connected with the line when it realized it was in its best interests to have a rail connection with the outside world.) Because of the Somerset, towns of the upper Kennebec Valley had their heyday, as goods and the produce of mills and farms had ready access to the markets of the more populous regions of the state. The Somerset took on a romantic cast with the construction of the Kineo Branch, which was primarily the creation of William Ayer.

William Madison Ayer was one of the most enterprising men in the upper Kennebec Valley. Born in Bangor in 1856, he came to Oakland at the age of one when his parents moved there. He attended Westbrook Seminary and Maine Wesleyan Seminary — now Colby College — and became a civil engineer. He was a member of the engi-

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(cont. from page 51) neering team that surveyed the Somerset line from North Anson to Bingham. For three years starting in 1876, he was the general ticket agent for the railroad. In 1881 he became superintendent and general manager, and in this position oversaw the extension of the railroad from Bingham to Kineo Station.

The Kineo Branch of the Somerset was an immediate success. Over it, Pullman cars carrying the wealthy of southern New England were able to pass directly into Maine and have their cars directly transferred to various Maine lines until they finally made connection with the Somerset. The Pullmans to Kineo Station were not the only out-ofstate cars to use the Kineo Branch. The Somerset advertised its excursion trips to Moosehead Lake in the summer, fall foliage sightseeing tours and hunters’ specials. In addition, work trains carrying local passengers and freight to and from Greenville passed over the branch line. Then a spur was run toward Moxie Pond to serve timber interests deep in the north woods. This was when the Gulf Stream Trestle was built.

William Ayer was much more than a railroad manager and civil engineer. He was senior partner in Ayer and Greeley, a coal company, superintendent of the Dunn Edge Tool Company, president of the Oakland Woolen Company, a director of the Cascade Savings Bank, and a director of the Central Maine Power Company. He had vision and expertise in many fields, but there was one challenge he knew was beyond his capability — bridging Gulf Stream Gorge. For this reason, he brought in Henry Hill, one of the leading experts in bridge construction of the time.

The new Somerset spur ran along Austin Stream before reaching Gulf Stream Gorge. This route was difficult because there were countless smaller streams constantly eroding their banks and ready to eat away railway embankments. And then there was Gulf Stream Gorge. When Henry Hill made his initial survey, he realized there was no way he could avoid the gorge. It had to be bridged. The building of the Gulf Stream Trestle was to be one of the great engineering feats of the turn of the century.

The Boston Bridge Company, one of the foremost bridge builders of the time, was brought in to build the trestle. To bring in materials for the footings and piers, an old tote road had to be used. However, by the time the tracks reached the gorge, everything was ready for the steel girders that came in over the line. Slowly the tracks proceeded out over the gorge as the girders were swung from a huge crane sitting on a flatcar. Amazingly, not a life was lost in the construction of the trestle. The Somerset now used pictures of the great span in its advertising, and count-

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less tourists took a ride over it just to gaze, mesmerized, into the yawning chasm below.

There was never a train accident on the great trestle. Once a bear jumped off to his death when a train came smoking and huffing towards it. It was a good thing, too, for the bear could have caused a derailment. Another time, a worker fell to his death when a hand car hit him when he wasn’t looking. These deaths along with the suicide of the lumberjack are the only recorded fatalities connected with the Gulf Stream Trestle.

The Somerset was taken over by the Maine Central in 1907, the same year it purchased the Kineo House. In 1933 the Kineo Branch was discontinued. The Kineo House had had its heyday. For a time, planks over the Gulf Stream Trestle allowed vehicular traffic. However, when the supporting piers began eroding, the trestle was dismantled in 1936.

After the Somerset was acquired by the Maine Central, William Ayer began to devote himself more and more to public service. He was a three-term member of the State Senate. In 1913 Governor Haines appointed him to the first State Highway Commission. He served on it for ten years and was chairman for three. During this period Maine developed its first comprehensive program for highway construction and maintenance. As he had been in Water and Bush Streets in Skowhegan. Item # LB2010.9.121507 from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection and www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

the development of the upper Kennebec Valley with the construction of the Somerset Railroad, William Ayer was now a major figure in the development of a modem highway system for the State of Maine.

There is an interesting story involving the Gulf Stream Trestle in my family. In 1934 my great uncle drove his family to see the trestle. My great uncle and aunt had taken a train ride over it some years earlier on their honeymoon. My great uncle was all set to drive across the trestle when his wife put her foot down and refused to be a part of the adventure. Her words were, “If you want to take your own life on that crazy bridge, Everett, you let me and the children out of this car right now!”

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