Watson Settlement Covered Bridge, Littleton Maine
The next town north of Houlton, on the east central border of Aroostook, is Littleton, a farming and lumbering community along U.S. Route One. Once served by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, it contains a long group of potato warehouses on the northern edge of the town. Several sawmills and businesses allied with the potato and lumbering industries made up its working activities. A State Fish Hatchery is located at the foot of Long Lake, which is a wide section of Big Brook. The Meduxnekeag River flows northerly through the eastern side of the township, with several lesser brooks feeding into it. Half a dozen local roads branching off Route One give access to farmlands and woodlots, two of them connecting with local roads in New Brunswick. Watson Settlement is located on one of these last two.
Littleton was settled in 1835 and formed from parts of the Williams College and Framingham Academy Grants. I+ was incorporated in 1856 as the 394th town. Population; 982.
Thomas Osborne was the first settler in 1835. Lewis DeLaite came in 1840 followed in the same year by a Samuel Adams, Francis Watson, and John Little. These three men carved out farms on the east side of the Meduxnekeag and the settlement that grew in Eastern Littleton came to be known as Watson's Settlement. The town itself was named Littleton in honor of Josiah Little of Portland, an earlier proprietor for the sale of the lands.
The basic significance of this bridge lies in the fact that is one of only ten remaining covered bridges in Maine. It is young in age, having been built in 1911. Reference to F. B. Coe and N. George Cobly's Atlas of Aroostook County Maine, 1877, Philadelphia, reveals that there was no bridge at that site on the Meduxnekeag Stream in that year. From that fact, it is surmised that the stream's crossing had been by boat or ferry. No bridge likely preceded the present bridge, but this is not confirmed. In 1911 a bridge did get built, but as a result, a court proceeding between the Aroostook County Commission and the Town of Littleton ensued because financial provisions for approaches to the bridge had not been made. So there the new bridge stood, high and dry with no way to get on or off it. The results of the court proceedings were that the Town of Littleton had to pay for the approaches. They were shortly thereafter installed.
Bridge Description
This wooden covered bridge spans the Meduxnekeag Stream some five miles north of Houlton, off U. S. Route 1, in Littleton, and on a side road two miles to the east. At this point, a traveler is within one mile of the New Brunswick, Canada border and eighteen miles from Woodstock, New Brunswick. The setting is rural. The Meduxnekeag Stream at this point normally is about 140' feet wide, slow-moving, flowing north and soon thereafter to flow east to enter the Saint John River in New Brunswick. This east-central border area of Aroostook County is the scene of intensive agricultural activity for the cultivation of the Maine potato. Areas not cultivated retain a forest cover which provides some lumbering activity. The land surface is undulating with low rises in ground levels bisected with brooks that converge on the Meduxnekeag Stream. The immediate land area around the Watson Settlement Bridge is cleared for potato cultivation.
This wooden covered bridge is 150' long, 20' wide, and 20' high from the flooring to the peak of its gable roof. It is supported by abutments at each end and a pier that rises from the middle of the stream. The abutments and pier are made of rubble which rises from the river's bed and shore for about 15'. These provide a platform for a 5' high rock-filled timber cribwork, on the top of which the bridge's spans rest. These abutments and the pier have been repaired with a new cover face of poured concrete The basic engineering concept employed in the span can be described as a Howe Truss System. This system consists of a series of crossed beams without King posts between the bottom and top chords. The crossed beams are morticed at the crossing point. The pier under the middle of the bridge has eliminated the need for sophisticated engineering for additional strength. The bottom chords of the two spans are tied together with narrow-spaced cross beams over which the flooring of planks runs down the length of the bridge. The top chords provide the plate for roof rafters ending in the peak of the gable. The roof is shingled. The sides of the bridge are boarded in. Boards run up and down. The ends of the gable are boarded in down to the clearance which is 13' 2" high. The side-to-side clearance is 18'. The bridge is not painted.
