Acadia national park carriage trail fall
by Tom Jelen
Title
Acadia national park carriage trail fall
Artist
Tom Jelen
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
302 04 00114 acadia national park carrige trail fall .tif
Forty-five miles of rustic carriage roads, the gift of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. and family, weave around the mountains and valleys of Acadia National Park. Rockefeller, a skilled horseman, wanted to travel on motor-free byways via horse and carriage into the heart of Mount Desert Island. His construction efforts from 1913 to 1940 resulted in roads with sweeping vistas and close-up views of the landscape. His love of road building ensured a state-of-the-art system.
Rockefeller�s interest in road building grew naturally from his father�s. John D. Rockefeller Sr., the founder of Standard Oil, had built and landscaped carriage roads on his Ohio and New York estates. From his father the junior Rockefeller learned many techniques that he applied to building his Mount Desert Island carriage roads.
State-of-the-Art Roads
Acadia�s carriage roads are the best example of broken-stone roads�a type of road commonly used at the turn of the 20th century�in America today. They are true roads, approximately 16 feet wide, constructed with methods that required much hand labor.
The roads were engineered to contend with Maine�s wet weather. Stone culverts, wide ditches, three layers of rock, and a substantial six- to eight-inch crown ensured good drainage. Rather than flattening hillsides to accommodate the roads, breast walls and retaining walls were built to preserve the line of hillsides and save trees. Rockefeller, naturally gifted with the eye of a landscape architect, aligned the roads to follow the contours of the land and to take advantage of scenic views. He graded the roads so they were not too steep or too sharply curved for horse-drawn carriages.
Road crews quarried island granite for road material and bridge facing. Roadsides were landscaped with native vegetation such as blueberries and sweet fern. The use of native materials helped blend the roads into the natural landscape.
Uploaded
February 11th, 2015
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