The need for a shorter way to travel from Machias to points east had always been on the minds of Machias residents. Travelers had to go by the road up around the settlement of Marshfield, some 5 miles, instead of being able to cross the several hundred yards across the river.  First mention of constructing a dyke over the Middle River appears in the Machias Town Records in 1832. An 1835 map shows a toll bridge, privately owned by the ‘Proprietors of the Machias Bridge’ which had been incorporated February 5, 1822 by act of the Maine Legislature.