An online exhibition analyzing and celebrating a long-time football rivalry between neighboring communities and their respective high schools.

1. Bridges
A Retrospective on a
Century Old Tradition and
Rivalry

2. Bridging Communities
 Alternate views on either side of the
Saco River from the Elm Street Bridge.

3. Bridging Communities
 Alternate views on either side of the
Saco River from the Main Street Bridge.

4. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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Ron Ouellette: Biddeford

5. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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Mike Redmond: Biddeford

6. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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Brian Curit: Biddeford

7. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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Chuck Cote: Thornton Academy

8. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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Nick Leblond: Biddeford

9. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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H.264 decompressor
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Scott Descoteaux: Biddeford

10. Bridging Generations
 Interviews with multiple generations of
participants in the battle.
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H.264 decompressor
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Jack Morrison: Thornton Academy

11. Bridging Time
 The first Biddeford-Thornton Academy
football contest was played in 1893.
 The Biddeford-Thornton Academy Rivalry
did not become an annual event on the
school’s athletic calendars until 1963.
 Since that year, the school’s have staged
their annual rivalry game without a break.
 The following slides display the trends of
results throughout the decades
contextualized with world, national, and
local events.

12. Bridging Time: The Early Years
 1893: Thornton Academy 12, Biddeford 0
 1893 Thornton Academy 4, Biddeford 0
 1901 Thornton Academy 4, Biddeford 0
 1908 Thornton Academy 22, Biddeford 6
 1909 Thornton Academy 2, Biddeford 0
 1910 Biddeford 13, Thornton Academy 5
 1910 Thornton Academy 13, Biddeford 5
President Taft at Biddeford Pool
 1912 Thornton Academy 12, Biddeford 0
Panama Canal Constructed Pepperell Mills Weave Room Troops at Boxer Rebellion

13. Bridging Time: The “Roaring”
 1921: Thornton Academy 2, Biddeford 0
Years
 1922: Biddeford 10, Thornton Academy 0
 1923: Thornton Academy 19, Biddeford 7
 1927: Thornton Academy 0, Biddeford 0 (Tie)
 1928: Thornton Academy 2, Biddeford 0
 1929: Biddeford 6, Thornton Academy 0
 1929: Thornton Academy 0, Biddeford 0
 1930: Biddeford 7, Thornton Academy 0 Bibeau Bros. Groceries in Biddeford
 1930: Biddeford 9, Thornton Academy 0
Pepperell Square in Saco Beer Hall Putsch Defendants Flappers

14. Bridging Time: The Depression
 1931: Thornton Academy 14, Biddeford 6 Years
 1932: Thornton Academy 13, Biddeford 4
 1933: Thornton Academy 18, Biddeford 0
 1934: Thornton Academy 31, Biddeford 0
 1935: Thornton Academy 41, Biddeford 0
 1936: Thornton Academy 7, Biddeford 0
 1937: Thornton Academy 6, Biddeford 6
 1938: Thornton Academy 26, Biddeford 6
 1939: Thornton Academy 19, Biddeford 0 CCC Sidewalk Repair in Biddeford
 1940: Thornton Academy 39, Biddeford 0
Gone With The Wind released 1930s T. A. postcard
The Rape of Nanking

15. Bridging Time: The War Years
 1941: Thornton Academy 25, Biddeford 0
 1942: Thornton Academy 35, Biddeford 0
 1943: Thornton Academy 6, Biddeford 0
 1944: Thornton Academy 6, Biddeford 0
 1945: Thornton Academy 6, Biddeford 6 (Tie)
 1946: Thornton Academy 0, Biddeford 0 (Tie)
 1947: Biddeford 33, Thornton Academy 0
 1948: Biddeford 6, Thornton Academy 0 1949 Chinese revolution
 1949: Biddeford 7, Thornton Academy 0
 1950: Thornton Academy 28, Biddeford 0
Ration Coupon Book
Civil Defense helmet 1940s Ferry beach postcard

16. Bridging Time: The Crisis &
 Recovery Years
1951: Thornton Academy 37, Biddeford 13
 1952: Thornton Academy 53, Biddeford 7
 1953: Thornton Academy 13, Biddeford 7
 1954: Thornton Academy 40, Biddeford 0
 1963: Thornton Academy 20, Biddeford 0
 1964: Thornton Academy 13, Biddeford 7
 1965: Thornton Academy 7, Biddeford 7 (Tie)
 1966: Biddeford 18, Thornton Academy 12
 1967: Biddeford 12, Thornton Academy 6
 1968: Thornton Academy 32, Biddeford 0 1968 Paris Revolution
Little Rock Nine 1958 Biddeford Breadline Saco’s Cascade Lounge

17. Bridging Time: The Gas Line
 Years
1969: Thornton Academy 35, Biddeford 16
 1970: Biddeford 44, Thornton Academy 19
 1971: Thornton Academy 14, Biddeford 14 (Tie)
 1972: Biddeford 12, Thornton Academy 0
 1973: Biddeford 19, Thornton Academy 13
 1973: Thornton Academy 37, Biddeford 13
 1974: Thornton Academy 16, Biddeford 13
 1974: Thornton Academy 22, Biddeford 5
 1975: Thornton Academy 21, Biddeford 0
 1976: Thornton Academy 25, Biddeford 8
 1977: Biddeford 8, Thornton Academy 7 Mid 1970s Gas Lines
 1978: Thornton Academy 14, Biddeford 0
 1979: Biddeford 28, Thornton Academy 7
Biddeford Celebrates Bicentennial
The Iranian Revolution Vic & Whit’s Opens in Saco

18. Bridging Time: The Supply-Side


Years
1980: Biddeford 50, Thornton Academy 18
1980: Biddeford 7, Thornton Academy 0
 1981: Biddeford 20, Thornton Academy 14
 1982: Thornton Academy 18, Biddeford 14
 1983: Thornton Academy 7, Biddeford 0
 1984: Biddeford 15, Thornton Academy 6
 1985: Biddeford 41, Thornton Academy 19
 1986: Thornton Academy 45, Biddeford 20
 1987: Biddeford 15, Thornton Academy 14
 1988: Biddeford 19, Thornton Academy 14
 1989: Biddeford 35, Thornton Academy 0 Challenger Tragedy
Fall of Berlin Wall MERC Opens
Ray’s becomes Permanent

19. Bridging Time: The Networking


Years
1990: Biddeford 41, Thornton Academy 13
1990: Biddeford 31, Thornton Academy 19
 1991: Thornton Academy 27, Biddeford 21
 1991: Biddeford 29, Thornton Academy 28
 1992: Biddeford 22, Thornton Academy 21
 1993: Biddeford 28, Thornton Academy 13
 1994: Biddeford 10, Thornton Academy 0
 1995: Biddeford 27, Thornton Academy 21
 1996: Biddeford 21, Thornton Academy 14
 1997: Biddeford 41, Thornton Academy 7
MacArthur Library Renovated
 1998: Biddeford 43, Thornton Academy 21
 1999: Biddeford 7, Thornton Academy 0
Funtown Updated Attractions
Rabin Assassinated Jerry Garcia Passed Away

20. Bridging Time: The Recent

Years
2000: Thornton Academy 28, Biddeford 19
 2001: Thornton Academy 32, Biddeford 3
 2002: Thornton Academy 20, Biddeford 12
 2003: Biddeford 47, Thornton Academy 8
 2004: Thornton Academy 7, Biddeford 6
 2005: Biddeford 30, Thornton Academy 7
 2006: Thornton Academy 21, Biddeford 14
 2007: Thornton Academy 20, Biddeford 14 (OT)
 2007: Thornton Academy 28, Biddeford 6 Passenger Trains Return
 2008: Thornton Academy 23, Biddeford 6
 2009: Thornton Academy 42, Biddeford 7
 2010: Biddeford 27, Thornton Academy 22
 2011: Thornton Academy 34, Biddeford 0
 2012: Thornton Academy 42, Biddeford 14
Biddeford High School Renovates An Historic Election The Advent of Social Media

21. Bridging Places
 A look at the venues where
the game is played and their
feeling/atmosphere as a
cultural reflection of the
neighboring communities.
Waterhouse Field in Biddeford
Hill Stadium in Saco

22. Waterhouse Field
 Located off campus on the corner of
West Street and Wendall Ave.
 Waterhouse Field was constructed in
1929 with the help of Alfred L.
Waterhouse and other local
investors, who purchased land off
West Street and built a playing field
under the name of the Biddeford
High School Alumni Association.
 During the Great Depression, it was
Waterhouse, a local hardware store
worker, who provided the funds to
keep the field going, including paying
for lighting for night football games
and for installing fencing.

23. Hill Stadium
 Located on campus
on Route 1/ Main St
in Saco.
 Opened in the early
1980s.
 Named for one-time
Saco physician and
TA trustee…
 Dr. Paul S. Hill Jr.

24. Bridging the Social Divide
 A look at the perspective of each
community’s students as they project on
their neighbors the prevailing attitude they
have toward the other.How is this attitude
manifested through the performance of
the “battle”?
 In asking current and former students to
share their perspective of their rivals
across the river, the following is a
sampling of quotes.

25. Bridging the Social Divide
 “They’re snobs! They think they are better
than us and consider us scum” Biddeford
Cheerleader.
 “I sense that they struggle over there,
with the economy, with reputation, it
seems like its always been that way,
going back to the mill days.” Saco Banker

26. Bridging the Social Divide
 “I don’t know, sometimes the whole thing
was so ridiculous. Why couldn’t these
people get themselves a life.” Thornton
Parent
 “Nothing was more important than
beating them, than giving this community
something to hang their hat on.”
Biddeford Teacher

27. Bridging the Social Divide
 “Back then, the noise, the uproar, I hated it. I
was in school to work toward getting out of
school, getting out of Saco, so I wasn’t about to
concern myself with how the Golden Trojans
were doing. It’s funny that I ended up right back
here and now take some pride in our recent
state title.” Thornton Teacher
 “Growing up in this town, football was
everything. Game days against TA were more
nerve racking than state title games.” Biddeford
Teacher

28. Bridging Attitudes
 A look at the battle through the eyes of the
“other” participants, the fans, parents,
students, etc.
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Cathy Baillargeon TA Parent

29. Bridging Attitudes
 A look at the battle through the eyes of the
“other” participants, the fans, parents,
students, etc.
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Keegan Moody TA Graduate

30. Bridging Attitudes
 A look at the battle through the eyes of the
“other” participants, the fans, parents,
students, etc.
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Cady Toussaint: Biddeford Cheerleader

31. Bridging Attitudes
 A look at the battle through the eyes of the
“other” participants, the fans, parents,
students, etc.
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Pat Bolin: Biddeford Band Teacher

32. Bridging Performance
 A look at parades, floats,
bridge decorating, pre-game
ritual from both sides of the
river.
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33. Bridging Performance
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34. Bridging Performance
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35. Bridging Performance
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36. Bridging History
 A look at the (in)famous battle that took
place without football. The thwarted
Labor Day KKK march from Saco into
Biddeford, stopped by local bands of
Irish/French immigrants at either bridge.

37. Bridging History
 September 1. 1924: The “Battle of the Bridge”
takes place as Saco Klansmen intend to march
into Biddeford.
 The objects of their derision were both the
French and Irish Catholic immigrant
communities.
 Although the Klan’s intentions proved a
depolarizing event for their divergent enclaves,
both Biddeford’s French and Irish stayed with
their own and defended separate bridges.

38. Bridging History
 As increasing numbers of knife-wielding Francos
who had been covering the Main Street bridge
began to arrive, the Klansmen lost their
enthusiasm and the parade melted away, ending
the “Battle.”
 One common story-the so-called “Battle of the
Bridge”-holds that the Klan got as far as the
middle of the Elm Street bridge to Biddeford’s
Spring’s Island when it halted upon seeing the
Irish with piles of “Irish confetti”. (A euphemism
for bricks and stones).

39. Bridging History
 Although the following images do not directly
originate from Saco, or its Klansmen of the
1920s, they do confirm the existence of the Klan
in Maine and its strong hold on the imagination of
members of the dominant culture threatened by
the emergence of an immigrant labor force.
 As an aside, the images from the program are an
heirloom belonging to a Biddeford resident,
believed to have once belonged to an ancestor
who resided down east.

40. Bridging History
More images reinforcing the presence of the Klan in Maine in the
1920s.

41. Bridging History
Images from a program for
a “Women of the Ku Klux
Klan” rally in Portland on
July 25, 1925. This
reinforces the existence of
the Klan locally in Maine,
not far from the
Biddeford/Saco area.

42. Contested Adversaries
 The opinion of opposing
players toward one another.
 Both at the time of
engagement and through
the lens of reflection.

43. Contested Adversaries
 “It was a battle of the haves and the have-
nots. We’re the poor guys and we beat those
guys and it was a tremendous feeling.”
 “I remember my senior year. We gathered at
Deering Ice Cream, they gathered at a Saco
establishment. There was a radio station at
both facilities and we were sort of, in a polite
way, sort of jabbing back and forth at each
other.”

44. Contested Adversaries
 “Just this past year on my team, I had three players
whose Dads played against me either as a players
or a coach and they are now playing at Thornton
Academy, so there is a mixture of the communities.
There always has been.”
 TA is the largest school, population wise, in the
state of Maine. So, because of that you can always
expect a battle from those guys. We’ve been
competing with them since as early as third grade,
the beginning of Peewees and have always
respected their many athletes.

45. Contested Adversaries
 “There was a general superiority kind of thing where
Thornton Academy people were considered back then
as sort of economically superior and more educated
and there may have been some truth to that.”
 “Even when I was at Thornton Academy, I think the
community of Biddeford had a greater support for their
team. We all know that parents and student bodies go
out to these games, but I felt even playing at Thornton
that Biddeford had a greater community sense.”
 “We had great respect for our opponents. No doubt
Thornton Academy was a team that we did not want to
lose to but at the same time we certainly respected
them. Back in the day, the schools were very, very
similar. Since then, TA has gone the private route and
the rivalry has changed.”

46. Bridging Battles
 Placing meaning on the conflict.
 The performance of the battle simultaneously divides and
binds the two communities of Biddeford and Saco.
 It is a profoundly meaningful identity marker for both
communities and their schools that participate in it.
 Students from both schools and citizens of the towns
acquire a strengthened sense of place through
performance of the battle.
 A recent USA Today poll resulted in the Battle of the
Bridge being named as the top high school rivalry in the
state of Maine.
 Regardless of the differences between the divergent
towns, regardless of their real or perceived notions of one
another, and regardless of the projections foisted across
their divide, the communities now collectively enjoy the
ownership of their shared experience.

47. Image Citations
 Slide 2: Author’s personal collection
 Slide 3: Author’s personal collection
 Slide 12: President Taft-http://www.mainememory.net
 Panama Canal-http://supplychainalmanac.com
 Pepperell Mills- http://www.mainememory.net
 Boxer Rebellion-http://en.wikipedia.org
 Slide 13: Bilbeau Bros.-http://www.mainememory.net
 Pepperrell Square-http://www.mainememory.net
 Beer Hall Putsch-http://en.wikipedia.org
 Flappers-http://hemingwaysparis.blogspot.com
 Slide 14: CCC Repair-http://www.mainememory.net
 Nanking-http://movies.nytimes.com
 Gone with the Wind-http://www.leninimports.com
 TA Postcard-http://www.ebay.com
 Slide 15: Chinese Revolution-http://www.japanfocus.org
 Civil Defense Helmut, Ration Coupon Book-author’s collection.
 Ferry Beach Postcard-http://www.ebay.com

48. Image Citations
 Slide 16: Paris Revolution-http://www.onthisdeity.com/13th-may-1968-–-paris-
revolts
 Little Rock Nine-http://imagine-yesterday.blogspot.com
 Biddeford Bread Line-http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm
 Boxer Rebellion-http://en.wikipedia.org
 Slide 17: Bilbeau Bros.-http://www.mainememory.net
 Pepperrell Square-http://www.mainememory.net
 Beer Hall Putsch-http://en.wikipedia.org
 Flappers-http://hemingwaysparis.blogspot.com
 Slide 18: CCC Repair-http://www.mainememory.net
 Nanking-http://movies.nytimes.com
 Gone with the Wind-http://www.leninimports.com
 TA Postcard-http://www.ebay.com
 Slide 19: Chinese Revolution-http://www.japanfocus.org
 Civil Defense Helmut, Ration Coupon Book-author’s collection.
 Ferry Beach Postcard-http://www.ebay.com
 Slide 20: Amtrak-http://www.city-data.com
 BHS Rennovation-http://www.keepmecurrent.com
 Obama/McCain-http://www.votetruth08.com
 Social Media-http://www.ideaover10.com

49. Image Citations
 Slide 21: Waterhouse Field-http://www.leaguelineup.com/
 Hill Stadium-http://www.leaguelineup.com
 Slide 22: Tiger Pride-http://www.johnpineauphotography.com Text
from-http://www.keepmecurrent.com
 Slide 23: Hill Stadium Sign-http://www.nevco.com
 Slides 34-36: Excerpts takes from Downs, Cities on the Saco
 Slide 37: All images- www.mainememory.net
 Slide 38: All images-author’s personal collection.