Criterion C: Engineering
Period of Significance: 1889
Local Level of Significance
Dow Bridge in Standish, Cumberland County, Maine is a locally significant example of a stone slab bridge. The bridge is eligible under Criterion C for engineering as an increasingly rare example of what was a common bridge type in Maine from early settlement through the nineteenth century. The abutments are large blocks of dry laid ashlar with granite lintels spanning the opening. A bridge was constructed in this location ca. 1790 shortly after a sawmill was built just south of the current bridge's location on Josies Brook. The current bridge is an 1889 rebuilding of the earlier wood bridge in the same location. The former town road which the bridge carried was discontinued by the town in 1951. The period of significance reflects the current bridges 1889 construction date. The bridge has a few displaced stones in the abutments due to invasive tree roots, but it otherwise has a high degree of integrity.