14 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
late wildness of the place. And I have stood on Dog- 
town Common in the gloaming and in the mystery of the 
boulders silhouetted like sentinels against the sky have felt 
the witchery of Tommy Younger, one of Dogtown’s 
quaint characters. Before the steam drill and the gun 
powder ripped open the bowels of the earth, before the 
steam horse snorted through its woods and mad motor 
cars of electricity and gasoline tore thro’ the land, what 
a rich wildness must have been here! What a land for 
pioneer souls seeking freedom from the restraints of arti- 
ficiality ! 
To the tourist of today, Cape Ann and New England 
do not seem ungrateful. After the earliest settlements 
were firmly established, new ones were made and the 
trend was ever westward. As the years went by and the 
fertile productiveness and very gratefulness in material 
things of the land toward the setting of the sun became 
known, men left their first establishments and made 
new ones. Nearly three centuries have gone by in the 
interim and the descendents of those vigorous pioneers, 
having accepted from the bountiful lands in the West 
an ample supply of wealth and well being, are coming 
back each summer to rediscover New England, which is 
called today the playground of America. 
In order to acquaint these modern explorers with 
those places on Cape Ann which have saved much of 
their beauty from the ravages of man, I propose in these 
articles to act as a guide. We will follow no beaten 
paths, but leisurely and pioneer-like, let us explore what- 
ever places fancy may lead us to. If the clouds hang low 
and the winds dash the sea over the cliffs let us seek the 
shore and watch the ever raging battle between the sea 
and the land. If the day be warm then in the shade of 
the woods we will seek refreshing springs and arbors 
wherein we are hidden from the weapons of Old Sol. 
We will take our time for the summer is before us and 
ours will be for a few months a life of leisure. And in 
the evening as from the tops of one of the hills we watch 
day creep into the west let us be thankful that today in 
spite of the centuries of the industrial instruments of de- 
struction New England and Cape Ann in particular yet 
boasts of enough beauty to be indeed the playground of 
America. 
Old Covered Bridge to be Demolished 
T HE march of pro- 
gress has one by 
one eliminated the pict- 
uresque and traditional 
landmarks which have 
been points of sight-see- 
ing interest by hundreds 
of autoists and travelers 
who come to Essex 
County and the North 
Shore each summer. 
The latest of these Jand- 
marks to go, about 
which many wierd stor- 
ies and strange traditions 
hang, is the old covered 
bridge at Haverhill, 
which many have heard 
about by having read 
John G.  Whittier’s 
“New England Super- 
stitions.” 
This bridge is the only covered one in Essex County 
and has seen service for nearly a century and a quarter. 
Many motorists who have used the weather-beaten struct- 
ure as a connecting means of going from Haverhill inte 
West Newbury and who recalled the wierd stories con- 
nected with the bridge have involuntarily shuddered as 
they rumbled through the dark tunnel of this quaint via- 
duct. The straggling road, combined with the Quaker- 
like simplicity of the bridge makes it appear like a page 
of history of a period many generations past. 
It is an interesting old bridge and is a familiar sight 
to hundreds of travellers from Haverhill who in summer 
seek the beach resorts in New Hampshire. In 1711 John 
OLD BRIDGE CONNECTING HAVERHILL AND WEST NEWBURY. 
ONLY COVERED BRIDGE IN ESSEX COUNTY 
Swett, the first ferry- 
man, took charge of the 
very small traffic across 
this part of the Merri- 
mack river, and in 1794 
the general court of 
Massachusetts gave per- 
mission to build a bridge 
at this point. The work 
was completed in about 
a year and the structure, 
1000 feet long, was 
erected. This bridge 
served until the great 
freshet of 1818, when 
the ice carried it away. 
' The flood was the worst 
ever known in the Mer- 
rimac valley and carried 
away sheep and cattle, 
and even houses and 
barns. Then the ferry 
of the old days was again brought into use, and flourished 
until 1828, when the present structure was erected by 
Essex county. When it was built it was considered one 
of the finest in Massachusetts, but its present antiquated 
appearance makes it more of a landmark than a utility. 
Many of the superstitions which were rampant in 
the days when the bridge was first built have been recounted 
in song, verse and story. Many strange events the old 
bridge has witnessed and om every hand there is regret 
that it must give way to a modern structure. The draw 
tender now works at his shoemaker’s bench in the little 
old toll house at the Haverhill end of the bridge turning 
out his product in the same manner that was in vogue 
over a hundred years ago. 
G. E. WILLMONTON 
Attorney and 
Counselor at Law 
WILLMONTON’S AGENCY 
Real Estate and Insurance of All Kinds 
School and Union Sea., Manchester +: Old South Bildg., Boston 
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