From the June 11, 1937 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Some of the ways and roads most used by the motorists of the Vineyard in this generation did not exist a century ago.

Oak Bluffs, now the principal landing place for Martha’s Vineyard, especially in the summer of the year, was long isolated from the rest of the Island, cut off from Vineyard Haven (or Holmes Hole as the town then was) by the deep indentation of the Lagoon, and from Edgartown — the township in which the district belonged — by Sengekontacket Pond. As a matter of fact, the place was chosen for a camp meeting ground largely because it was remote, aloof even from that small part of the world represented by the Island towns. The first attendants at camp meetings made their journeys by boat, because overland travel would have been so tedious.

There was, until comparatively late in the last century, no beach road in either direction. The Lagoon bridge and the beach road from Vineyard Haven through Eastville to what is now Oak Bluffs, came first, this route being completed in 1871. Then followed the beach road to Edgartown in 1872 and 1873. These two roads now seem indispensable, and it is hard for the present generation to imagine how the Island got along without them.

The changes brought by these highways in the habits of Islanders and summer residents have been so complete that now the advocates of any project to modify the existing system meet with stubborn resistance. There have been many ardent partisans of a plan to do away with the Lagoon bridge, thus restoring the Lagoon to its old state as an open harbor. But a road, and particularly a bridge, once built and used, is not easily dispensed with, and this particular question has been settled for a long time to come by the construction recently of the new and higher bridge, a useful compromise between two points of view. This bridge makes access to the Lagoon much easier for fishermen and yachtsmen than it has been since the sixties of the past century, but it preserves the road link which was fought for by another generation and which has become one of the most used road links of the Island.

Incidentally, the Lagoon bridge set a brake upon the opening into the Lagoon, which, like other pond openings of the Island, had showed a roving disposition. The opening used to move along the beach, as currents and conditions of wind and weather worked upon it. Filled in upon one side, it would dig away the sand on the other to preserve its tidal flow, and would thus travel. It is recorded that in Revolutionary times the opening had worked all the way around to the boat wharf, and it connected with the Lagoon through Bass Creek, then running where the street now is. With the bridge and bulkheads in place, the opening is a settled affair.

The bridge was first built to save the long journey around the head of the pond or a boat trip across the harbor from Vineyard Haven. It was a question of substituting a short cut of two and a half miles for a long and often sandy road of seven and a half miles. This meant a great deal in the days of horse drawn transportation. The summer of 1871 saw from 150 to 200 carriages pass over the Lagoon bridge every day, heavy traffic considered phenomenal for those times when people did not move about much. This was a vindication for those who had fought for the bridge. Now, of course, that number of automobiles often passes over the bridge in less than an hour. Vineyard Haven had paid some $1,600 a year for the transportation of baggage to the camp ground and vicinity. This cost was cut to a small fraction.

The transportation system of the Island was greatly shaped by the new route, and the location of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital at Eastville was thus made logical. The long history of change which followed the opening of the new road made it less likely, year after year, that the Island would ever be willing to go without this route.

This year another change is being advocated which would restore a plan of overland travel to the status it occupied before the upbuilding of Oak Bluffs. Oak Bluffs town officials and citizens were interested in the removal of the road which separates Sunset Lake and Lake Anthony — the historic “Jordan crossing,” so named in the era of religious gatherings which were the start of the community.

The proposal to open the ponds completely to the sea and to make traffic go around the shore instead of across on a bridge, is in the line of improvements dating back to the turn of the century. It was just about at the beginning of this hundred hears that Lake Anthony was opened through the beach, and a safe refuge provided for small boats. Since that time there has been uninterrupted improvement of the harbor. The importance of water and water interests has risen as the speed and ease of modern transportation have made it less essential to select the shortest possible routes on land.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

[email protected]