Stockton Springs
Maine
May 2015
Our next stop is the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory in southeast Maine, south of Bangor. What brings us here to the bridge is its design of modern cable-stayed construction. One glance tells any one of us that it is modern cable-stayed construction. Right? Instead of the usual method of bundling cables together, which makes it difficult to access single cables, these cables are laid into a sort of cradle with spacers between so you can get to any individual cable you like. Y’know, for repairs and stuff. That’s what I was thinking too.
But that’s not what drew us here. It is what the thing looks like that is the attraction (and also a secret agenda of mine, which I will reveal later.) Imagine two Washington Monuments spaced just under a quarter of a mile from each other. Affix thick white cables into the upright shafts, some on the inside, some on the opposing side. Make it form a pleasing, geometric shape as the cables attach to the bridge. Gasp in appreciation.
The bridge itself weighs roughly the same as 8000 African elephants, males and females averaged together, or just under 320 000 ducks.
After all that counting, what really brings us here is the height. If you want, you can ride 420 feet up on the fastest elevator in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, to get near the top. This elevator is inside the west pylon. After 50 seconds (or what seems like three long days if you don’t care for heights, as I don’t) the doors open up to a glass-enclosed observation deck. After climbing most of mile-high Mount Katahdin, 420 feet may not seem like a lot. But you are inside one of the two supporting pylons, so from the interior observation deck, there is nothing to see that holds you up there. You look out and there is the rest of the 360° world. You are floating. There is more gasping in appreciation, although it could be argued that the gasps of one of us, me, is something more akin to the constricted throat of someone experiencing terror.
Terror is not my hidden agenda, but rather, challenging myself, trying to get more comfortable with heights… That’s my hidden agenda.
What is out there in the 360° world? Look through the windows at the supporting cables. Just over there is Fort Knox State Historic Site which played a part in a disagreement between the British and the United States concerning a Canadian border, but not much of a part though, as the fort was never finished. The incomplete fort also was involved in the Civil War here in the United States, but the fort never saw combat. Twice to the dance with no dance partner.
In various directions are the shipyards, an industrial plant, a number of little communities, tree-covered hills and mountains, the Penobscot River and the Penobscot Bay. You can also spot Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, sometimes the first place in the United States where morning sunlight strikes land.
Because of my fear of heights — the damned tower is as tall as a 43-story building — going up long elevator rides is a harrowing experience for me. Today, I want to see the view, but when I stand on the ground at the base of the bridge support and look up, the view makes me dizzy. Also nervous and sweaty. But everyone I am with, all three of them, say, “Sure, let’s go up.”
I figure, I want to hike the Knife Edge. The Knife Edge is one scary mother of a hiking trail, leading 1.1 miles from Pamola Peak to Baxter Peak, the summit of Mount Katahdin, the high point of Maine. It has steep, 2000-foot drops on both sides of the trail which in places is only two feet wide. You must pick your way over treacherously tricky rock piles, around and through. It’s a premier scrotum-shrinker.
Yes, I want to climb the Knife Edge, which has given me the collywobbles for years. How can I possibly traverse the Knife Edge if I can’t even ride up less than a minute in an elevator!
Without a word, I step into the elevator car, focus on my breathing, get out of the elevator car, all without screaming or revisiting my lunch. After that elevator ride up the tower, we must ascend two more floors, these on winding steps to the glass enclosed viewing area, where I clutch the railing with a suspicious grip. What the hell am I doing up here! I’ll stand a safe distance from the glass wall while I look around at the amazing panoramic view. Whoa, I even begin to enjoy looking out. A little.
When we descend the steps back to the elevator, we pass a man who is clutching the wall even more tightly than I was clutching the railing. I’m with you, bro. How’s your scrotum?