This winter marks the tenth anniversary of the completion of the Bridgton & Saco Railroad. The first ground was broken July 17th, at Hiram Junction, by chief engineer S. L. Stephenson and chairman of Bridgton board of Selectmen, Joseph A. Bennett. On Saturday, Jan. 21st, 1883, President Wm. F. Perry drove the last spike at this terminus, and soon after, at 4:45 p. m., the first train rolled into the station, loaded with humanity, cheered by an enthusiastic crowd at the depot grounds. It was a great event for Bridgton; and the road has proved something more than an incident. In these ten years nobody on the road has been killed, nobody has been wounded farther than a jammed finger or a barked shin. Horace Billings’ forcible remark, “The little road has come to stay!” uttered a decade ago, has proved a main “stay” to the industrial and commercial interests of our good town.

~ Printed by the Bridgton News on February 10, 1893.