LISBON

A large crowd turned out Monday for the grand opening of the new bridge linking Lisbon and Durham. The first person to cross the old bridge in 1937 was on hand to open the new bridge and take one last ride across the old one.

Walter Parker arrived with his nephew Ron Parker in a fully restored 1932 Chevy provided by Bill Stevens Auto Sales and Body Shop. Parker waved, chatted, hugged and even signed autographs for children who greeted him.

Parker made his first trip across the now retired bridge with his brother Herbert, in a Model A Ford.

“The first one (bridge) went out in ’36. We had a big flood and never had one like it since and it at least took two years to build that bridge,” Parker said.

Pointing across the river from the Lisbon side, Parker said he could almost see the house he was born in 95 years ago this August.

“I was born up there just a short ways and I used to be a shoe cobbler in this town before the war and after. I’ve had a beautiful life. I married a beautiful lady and and we were together 73 years — happy life, never argued or fought or nothing,” Parker said.

In World War II, Parker saw England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. He said his unit did decoy work and that he made it out of Europe without a scratch before returning home to his business in Lisbon.

“You know what I like to do? If I can leave a person, when I meet them — if I can leave them with a smile, I am happy. I figure I’ve done my chore for the day seeing a smile on that long face,” Parker said, beaming as yet another old friend approached to give him a hug.

As the bridge was opened, Parker waved and greeted the crowd as he first crossed the new bridge to the Durham side, then returned to Lisbon across the old bridge.

David Bernhardt, commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation, said it was an “impressive” turnout for the bridge opening.

Bernhardt thanked general contractor Wyman and Simpson and all their subcontractors on a job well done. He said when the former bridge gets demolished it will be one year earlier than first proposed.

Representatives for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, were on hand as well as state Reps. Dale Crafts, R-Lisbon, Brian Hobart, R-Bowdoinham, and Paul Chase, R-Durham, and Garrett Mason, Republican state senator for Lisbon and Durham.

“Without their support, things like this do not happen,” Bernhardt said of the $6 million bridge that features improved sight distance, wider lanes with shoulders, a pedestrian sidewalk, and enough room to accommodate tractor trailers.

Lisbon Town Council Chairman Roger Bickford said the sidewalk was not in the original plans but became part of the deal by way of a meeting with Gov. Paul LePage.

Bickford said he and Crafts were traveling up to Augusta to talk to the governor regarding turning the old rail bed in to a Rails to Trails project that would link Lisbon to Lewiston.

“After we got done talking about the Rails to Trails with the governor, (Crafts) asked him about the sidewalk,” Bickford said.

He said the governor first acted flabbergasted at the notion of throwing in a sidewalk after pitching the idea of Rails to Trails, according to Bickford.

“So, the governor looked at his main man and said, call them up and tell them to put it in. We found out two days later it was a done deal,” Bickford said.

Merton Ricker of the Lisbon Historical Society said the first bridge linking the two communities was authorized as a toll bridge after a group of 40 citizens petitioned the pre-Maine, Massachusetts government in 1819.

The tolls were posted as follows: 2 cents for each person crossing on foot, 3 cents for a wheelbarrow and one person, 10 cents for each wagon or a sulkie drawn by one horse, 6 cents a dozen for sheep or swine.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com