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This is the old Frank J Wood bridge that crossed the Androscoggin River and connected Brunswick to Topsham.
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A major thoroughfare for the area, but old and in dire need of major structural repair. Numerous studies and years of inspections and debates resulted in a plan for replacement.
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The new concept was wider and free standing, with unobstructed scenic views and platform bump outs for taking in the sights.
As a rule, Mainers don’t like change and a lot of people fought to save and refurbish the historic old bridge… but finally lost the legal battle.
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The new bridge opened a few months ago and personally… I like it. Easier to navigate with wider lanes and a sidewalk for strolling, I think it’s a vast improvement.
The old bridge is currently being town down, piece by cumbersome piece and its devoted fans want to pay homage. Which sounds lovely, but in reality? Not so much.
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This is an artist’s rendering of what the (extremely expensive tax payer funded) memorial would look like.
Local reaction is not favorable.
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I’m totally Team Banana.
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How about you?
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River's world..... 
😲😅😅😅
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🤣🤣🤣 Bananas are better than what the artist had created. Could they just post an old picture, like good old days?
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Or a headstone. I can already see the epitaph “Here lies the old bridge that sent many souls across River Styx.”
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Apparently not.
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As long as there’s a ginormous jar of peanut butter on the other side, I’m all in!
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I don’t like peanut butter. How about a giant box of Nilla Wafers…
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Bananas, all the way.
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Team Bananas all the way !! How bout just a sign memorilizing the old bridge 🙄
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Looks beautiful to me who has used it often in the last 50 years but I worry about ice flows.
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When I was growing up there was an old iron bridge over the river. It was known as Black Bridge. It has been replaced by a modern concrete bridge with no black iron superstructure, but it is still Black Bridge as far as I’m concerned. Historical documents note “the bootleggers, dancing girls, and other shady characters who congregated in the speakeasies of that area.”
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Funny how people get so attached to something whose sole purpose is to keep you dry while you go from Point A to Point B. I find the memorial a-peeling.
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Opinions are split.
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Okay, I am a big fan of architectural preservation, but the architecture has to be worth preserving!
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That sounds about right.
🤣
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WTF!? A memorial? For a bridge?
And at tax payer expense!?
Are they going to build memorials to potholes next? Drilling clean new holes in the road next to the filled one?
Some money is definitely getting laundered here…
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It wouldn’t surprise me…
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For some reason I’m thinking of the end of Planet of the Apes – in the future a team of astronauts finally makes it back to earth – crash lands in that river and the only thing that’s survived the global nuclear war is that banana monument. Seems appropriate hey?
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That’s a dystopian vision, for sure.
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The bananas are a huge improvement over the old bridge parts!
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