_{Uncle Tim’s Bridge from the north end.}

During the teenage summers I spent tooling around Wellfleet on my ten-speed, I was a frequent loiterer on Uncle Tim’s Bridge. Connecting East Commercial Street with Hamblen Island (or Cannon Hill) — Wellfleet’s oldest public park — the bridge felt magical to me. A pedestrian bridge, it seemed like a grand folly — a wonderful artifact that was a mystery. It didn’t hurt that across Duck Creek was a pottery staffed by some young guys on whom I had a big crush. I spent a fair amount of my loitering wondering if I should become a potter, too.

If you take into account that Duck Creek was originally Wellfleet’s harbor, the orientation of buildings — such as houses facing the creek and the orientation of the Congregational Church on the hill — make a lot more sense. The creek was the town’s main thoroughfare, the center of it’s economic life. By 1870, though, the harbor proved to be too shallow for modern boats and the construction of the railroad dike hastened the silting process. Today, the idea that the creek was once a harbor seems impossible, but it’s fun to imagine.

Arthur T. Hopkins owned Hamblen Island and he gave it it to the town in 1931. Uncle Tim’s Bridge is believed to have been originally built in 1783 as a shortcut for people living on the south end of Duck Creek.  The bridge is named for Timothy Daniels, who lived on Whit’s Lane, near the north side of the bridge. While he died in 1893, it wasn’t until the 1940s that the name became commonplace. The bridge I hung out on was built in the 19th century. Today’s bridge is a contemporary replica, built in 2008.

_{Remains of the railroad bridge & trestle.}

The walk around Hamblen Island is short, but it gives you a sense of the town’s layout that you can’t get from the streets. You can see the orientation of the town center up on the hill. Via the remains of the railroad dike and trestle, the sequence of buildings on Commercial Street offer a trace of a bustling center of commerce. And through the trail that bisects the island you’re enveloped by calm and reminded of the beauty of Wellfleet’s non-human ecology.

_{Orientation of the Town from Hamblen Island}

_{House Facing Duck Creek from Hamblen Island}

_{I just came across this on the Cape Cod History Facebook page (on September 14, 2023): A bird’s eye view of Hamblen Island in Wellfleet. The photo was taken in 1871 from the steeple of the Congressional Church which is located on Main Street. Uncle Tim’s Bridge is on the right.}

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