The first bridge across Bass River was authorized by the state in 1816, was built just south of where the railroad bridge was built later, and was removed when the new bridge at the current Highbank Road site was built in 1833.
I posted earlier this year about a Google Earth satellite photo which appeared to show the remains of a causeway across the river, just south of the old railroad bridge: Where was the first bridge?
I was able to visit the place at low tide with my sister, Joanne Shaak, this morning and there are clearly lines of small rocks on either side of the apparent causeway. This first photo shows the pattern of rocks on the eastern, Dennis, side. This extends 20 to 30 feet into the river, ending when it deepens into the channel. The right of the picture is the north side, and the river gets a little deeper north of the rocks. The rocks appear on the slope.
This second picture…
…shows the north side of the above picture, looking towards shore. On this side, the rocks nearest shore were left high and dry by the low tide (see the next picture).
These rocks are the rocks on the north side closest to shore:
This is the south side of the possible causeway. While the north side extends straight out from shore, this side angles out for a while, then turns and heads straight out:
Finally, this is the portion of the causeway on the western, or Yarmouth, side of the river. This portion extends further out into the river, but we couldn't get over there easily today.
So. The Google Earth picture from the earlier post does show a regular pattern of rocks in the river. I can't think of any other human activity here which would have done this. I can't imagine this was something done to help with the construction of the railroad bridge. But I also have a hard time envisoning a causeway-bridge combination here. Wouldn't it have been easier to build a wooded bridge across than to move all this earth and stone?
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