American Scientist

The principal approach to Bath, Maine, is along the Atlantic Coastal Highway, U.S. 1. As described in the previous column in this series (Twin Bridges, January–February), the new Sagadahoc Bridge on this route has eliminated the bottleneck that used to exist at this only crossing of the Kennebec River within almost 15 miles. Vacationers often found themselves caught in miles-long stop-and-go traffic at this location, but local residents had long ago learned how to miss the worst and most predictable traffic jams: They simply avoided driving across the bridge during shift changes at the adjacent shipbuilding facility, Bath Iron Works.