Franco-American history talk slated

Posted February 13, 2012

Updated November 16, 2019

The Times Record

BATES COLLEGE professor Robert Bunselmeyer will discuss the role the Androscoggin Swinging Bridge played in the development of Franco-American culture in Brunswick and Topsham at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Topsham Public Library.

TOPSHAM — Robert Bunselmeyer, a Bates College professor, will give a free talk Tuesday about the Franco- American mill workers who used the Androscoggin Swinging Bridge to get to and from work during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

THE Androscoggin Swinging Bridge, built in 1892, provided passage over the Androscoggin River for Franco American mill workers who lived in Topsham and worked in Brunswick.

Bunselmeyer will speak during the regular meeting of the Topsham Historical Society at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Topsham Public Library on Foreside Road.

“The bridge was built to allow mill workers to cross the Androscoggin (River) to work at the woolen mill located in what is now Fort Andross,” a release states. Bunselmeyer will talk about how those workers shaped culture in Topsham and Brunswick.

Nancy E. Randolph, chairwoman of Save Our Swinging Bridge.Org, will also give a brief talk on the rehabilitation and the contemporary use of the bridge, which was built in 1892 by the Roebling Co., the same firm that designed the Brooklyn Bridge.

Bunselmeyer, a Brunswick resident, teaches the history of modern Europe, especially Britain, at Bates College. He also studies local history.

For more information, Randolph at 729- 3600 or Diane Hender at 725- 0360. Learn more about the bridge at www.saveourbridge.org.

[email protected]