LB2007.1.72021

LB2007.1.72021

Bucksport Ferry The 1887 Acts and Resolves of the 63rd Legislature of the State of Maine include the Act to Incorporate the Winterport Ferry Company. This company was "authorized to set-up, establish and maintain a ferry across the Penobscot River from Winterport Village to Bucksport Center, so called with a boat or boats to be propelled by steam, wind or horse power or oars, as may be deemed most advisable from time to time". The fare established at that time was: "For each Foot Passenger, 15 cents; One Vehicle of any kind drawn by one horse and two persons, 75 cents; and for each additional horse with any of the carriages aforesaid, 25 cents, each additional person, 15 cents; for each yoke of oxen with or without cart or sled or driver, 30 cents each; all other neat cattle and beasts of burden, thirty cents each; sheep, swine and smaller animals, six cents each." A 1916 Edition of the Handbook of New England mentions the ferry, which crossed the Penobscot from Prospect to Bucksport (the Bucksport and Prospect Ferry Company) just to the left (upriver) of Fort Knox. The fare for this ferry at the time was $1 for a car and two persons, extra persons 10 cents each. As auto traffic increased, pressure built for a bridge across the Penobscot Narrows. Construction on the Waldo-Hancock Bridge began in 1929 and the bridge opened in 1931. The bridge closed on December 30, 2006, replaced by the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.