Sight · Acadia National Park
A rare Gothic arch tucked into the car-free carriage roads.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Acadia Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Acadia National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Brown Mountain Gatehouse and Its Bells“Brown Mountain Gatehouse is ahead, with stone towers and red-brick bands at a historic carriage-road entrance. Bells let the gatekeepers know when a carriage or rider wanted through.”
Plays as you drive up to Hemlock Bridge in the Parkwolf Acadia Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“…As we drove through Acadia it gave us a tour, which was really cool. Lots of great info about the parks and how to avoid the crowds. It’s a great travel companion!”
Guide
Hemlock Bridge is a 200-foot reinforced-concrete bridge clad in quarried granite, crossing Maple Spring Brook among the hemlocks. Its pointed Gothic arch and smaller side arches make this a distinctive stop for anyone exploring Acadia’s carriage roads or nearby trails. It’s a compact historic landmark, not a drive-up attraction.
You can’t drive to the bridge. Reach it on the car-free carriage roads, which are shared by walkers, bicyclists, and horse-drawn carriages, or on a connecting hike. Maple Spring Trail passes under the bridge, and stone steps link the trail with the carriage road, so you can see it from above and below.
From below, the stone arch frames hemlocks and the rocky brook ravine. From the bridge, look south toward Somes Sound and the Western Mountain mass. For the clearest architectural view, take the steps down Maple Spring Trail and look back up through the arch.
Completed in 1924, Hemlock was the fourth of 17 carriage-road bridges and the first of the system’s large granite bridges. Architect William Welles Bosworth and engineer Paul D. Simpson designed it for John D. Rockefeller Jr. The pointed arch echoes the hemlocks around the brook, and it’s one of only two Rockefeller carriage-road bridges with a Gothic arch.
Waterfall Bridge, a separate structure, is less than 100 yards away. The road was deliberately aligned to show both bridges in quick succession; a lower route could have crossed Maple Spring Brook and Hadlock Brook with a single bridge.
Wildlife
130 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around noonSighting map
21 sightingsPeregrine FalconMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
396 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
305 sightingsPorcupineMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
201 sightingsBeaverMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
34 sightingsMinkMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Acadia. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingMaple Spring Trail1.4 mi · 1.8 hr · 0.3 mi awayA steep brookside gorge with historic stonework and rebuilt bridges
ModerateBald Peak Trail1 mi · 45 min · 0.5 mi awayA short, steep granite climb to islands above Upper Hadlock Pond.
ChallengingGrandgent Trail1.1 mi · 1.5 hr · 0.5 mi awayA steep, one-way ridge link over Gilmore between two summits.
ModerateParkman Mountain Trail2.4 mi · 2 hr · 0.6 mi awayA short granite climb with a view over Somes Sound.
ModerateAround Mountain Loop11.3 mi · 5 hr · 0.6 mi awaySeven historic bridges reward a long day on old carriage roads.
ChallengingBald Peak and Parkman Mountain Loop2.7 mi · 2 hr · 0.6 mi awayA steep granite loop to two peaks with ocean views.
ModerateHadlock Brook Trail1.5 mi · 1.5 hr · 0.6 mi awayA steep, rooty climb beside a waterfall to Sargent’s south ridge.
ModerateGoat Trail to Norumbega Mountain1.1 mi · 1.3 hr · 0.6 mi awayA short, steep climb to a mostly wooded summit.
Sight · 0.1 mi awayWaterfall BridgeA 1925 arch frames Hadlock Brook's waterfall along car-free roads.
Sight · 0.5 mi awayHadlock Brook BridgeA small stone arch on the car-free Hadlock Loop.
Sight · 0.8 mi awayAmphitheatre BridgeA granite arch curves around two trees toward a waterfall.
Sight · 1.1 mi awayDeer Brook BridgeTake a carriage-road detour for twin arches and a 1925 medallion.
Sight · 1.3 mi awayWest Branch Jordan Stream BridgeA granite carriage-road bridge with a six-foot Roman arch.
Sight · 1.4 mi awayLittle Harbor Brook BridgeA 1919 granite-faced arch over a shallow brook on car-free roads.
Sight · 1.4 mi awayCliffside BridgeA 1932 stone bridge with castle turrets above Jordan Stream.
Sight · 1.4 mi awayBrown Mountain GatehouseA 1932 stone-and-brick gate marks the carriage-road entrance.Parkwolf’s Acadia ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
