Brunswick-Topsham Memorial Day Parade & Bridge Observance

Maine’s largest Memorial Day parade begins before most of the state has finished its first cup of coffee. On May 25, 2026, participants form up at Topsham Municipal Building on Main Street at 8:45 a.m. for an opening observance, with the parade stepping off at 9 a.m. The route travels downhill from Topsham, crosses the Frank J. Wood Bridge over the Androscoggin River, and continues through downtown Brunswick before ending at Veterans Memorial Square on Maine Street, where a final ceremony begins around 11 a.m. Admission is free, and the event runs rain or shine.

The bridge stop is what separates this parade from nearly every other in New England. Midway across the span linking two towns and two counties, the procession halts while veterans cast a wreath into the Androscoggin below. The river has carried that gesture for decades, the current pulling flowers downstream toward Merrymeeting Bay. The Frank J. Wood Bridge sits just upstream from the Androscoggin Swinging Bridge, a suspension footbridge built in 1892 by the same firm that designed the Brooklyn Bridge, originally meant to carry Cabot Mill workers from Topsham housing to the Brunswick factory floor. Both bridges, different generations and purposes, frame the same stretch of water where the ceremony lands hardest.

The parade itself reflects genuine community scale. Past years have featured Mt. Ararat High School’s band, the Public Safety Pipe and Drum Corps, Topsham’s Woodside One Wheelers unicycle club, scout troops, and veterans from Disabled American Veterans Chapter 15 of Brunswick. Candy tossing is strictly prohibited along the route.

To make a weekend of it, the Androscoggin runs south toward Merrymeeting Bay, where kayakers and canoeists trace tidal marshes most spring visitors never find. Look for waterfront cabin rentals along the mid-coast corridor on Lake.com before booking fills around the holiday.