From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
The Summit Cadillac Mt. Bar Harbor, Me. No. 10
The Summit Cadillac Mt. Bar Harbor, Me. Cadillac Mountain Road opened in 1931, making the summit of the Eastern Seaboard's highest mountain accessible to motorists. It was not the first road to the top. Beginning in the 1850s sightseers could take a bumpy ride in a buckboard wagon over a crude road up Green Mountain, which, in 1918, was renamed Cadillac. Between 1883 and 1893 the Green Mountain Cog Railway carried passengers from Eagle Lake to the summit, where there was a hotel. By 1900 the road was impassable, and hotel was gone. Announced in 1922, the Summit motor road project would take 10 years to complete because of controversy, funding shortages, challenging conditions, and changing contractors. A Bangor Commercial editorial mocked opponents, saying climbers' rugged outings would "be spoilt by having the view from the top of Cadillac Mountain marred by the sight of a car which was not there when Champlain discovered the island…" The proposal accepted by the National Park Service stipulated no other road would be built up a mountain in Acadia National Park. Construction began in August 1929. George Dorr and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., emphasized aesthetics, environmental harmony, and durable construction in planning and monitoring the project. The 3.5-mile road had a surface made from crushed pink granite mixed with asphalt to blend with its setting. More than 800 cars and 3000 visitors made the trip up Cadillac on the October 1931 day the road opened. The Portland Sunday Telegram called the new road "one of the finest mountain drives in the world,"
