DEER BROOK BRIDGE

Majestic Dark-Stained Granite:

Located near the northwest corner of Jordan Pond where the Around-Mountain Carriage Road intersects with the Deer Brook Trail, the grand Deer Brook Bridge is the only carriage-road bridge that has two arches. Constructed out of dark-stained granite with an elegant 1925 date medallion above the arches, this bridge looks like something you would find in New York City's Central Park.

There are several straightforward routes to visit the bridge. The simplest is to start at the Jordan Pond House and follow the Around-Mountain Carriage Road north up the west side of Jordan Pond roughly two miles to reach the bridge. Alternatively, hikers can start at the Bubbles parking lot and hike the Bubbles Divide to Jordan Pond and the Deer Brook Trail; while the second option is only one mile (one-way), there is a lot more up and down. And finally, if you are doing a longer hike up Penobscot Mountain and/or Sargent Mountain, you can loop back down via the rugged Deer Brook Trail to see the bridge and then hike the Jordan Pond Path back to the Jordan Pond House.

To navigate the trails and carriage roads of Acadia and find the classic stone bridges, get a copy of the wonderful Map Adventures Acadia National Park Trail Map or Diane Abrell's Carriage Roads of Acadia: A Pocket Guide. And for more in depth information on the construction and history of the bridges, please see Robert Thayer's Acadia's Carriage Roads book.