South Bristol is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States.

[2] A fishing and resort area, South Bristol includes the villages of Walpole and Christmas Cove, the latter on Rutherford Island.

Brickyards along the Damariscotta River supplied many of the bricks used to build Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.

The Bristol Yacht Building Company, later known as H.F. Gamage Shipbuilding, built minesweepers for the United States Navy during World War II.

[5] Shipbuilding has remained important, with schooners, fishing trawlers, lobster boats and yachts constructed at the town.

Other industries in South Bristol are fishing, lobstering, clamming, aquaculture and tourism.

[4] The peninsula and Rutherford Island were connected by a swing bridge, one of only three in Maine, which spanned "The Gut."

For well over a century, Rutherford Island in particular has been a vacation destination for families from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

The southern one-third of the town is on Rutherford Island, separated from the mainland by The Gut.

The island was named after the Reverend Robert Rutherford, who came with David Dunbar's group to the area from North Ireland in 1729.

The highway leads north to Damariscotta, 13 miles (21 km) from South Bristol village.