Amphitheatre Bridge

Amphitheatre Bridge is a 1931 granite arch over Little Harbor Brook, near its waterfall. It carries Amphitheatre Road in the park’s motor-free carriage-road network, so plan to reach it on foot or by bike as part of an outing rather than driving up. The Amphitheater Trail passes below the arch on rough, rocky footing.

The bridge is 245 feet long, with a 32-foot arch and a high point 27 feet above the brook. A turret at the east end of the south parapet has a viewing balcony over the bridge and ravine. For a closer photo, follow the trail under the span and frame the granite curve against the rocky brook bed.

The bridge’s asymmetrical plan preserves two large trees and aligns the arch with the waterfall. Its quarry-faced, random-coursed granite sits over a reinforced-concrete base. Look at how the parapets rise toward the arch and how the stonework changes from the bridge deck to its underside.

This was the largest of 17 bridges built on Mount Desert Island’s carriage roads between 1917 and 1940. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his family developed the wider motor-free network from 1913 to 1940 for horse-and-carriage travel, laying roads to follow the hillsides, preserve trees and seek views. Crews cleaned and repointed this bridge’s stonework in a 2019 preservation project.