Benjamin Franklin Bridge
| Benjamin Franklin Bridge | |
|---|---|
The bridge in 2012, before the PATCO track was replaced. Race Street Pier is in the foreground.
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| Coordinates | 39°57′11″N 75°08′02″W / 39.953°N 75.134°WCoordinates: 39°57′11″N 75°08′02″W / 39.953°N 75.134°W |
| Carries | 7 lanes of   I‑676 / US 30, 2 PATCO railroad tracks, and 2 sidewalks |
| Crosses | Delaware River |
| Locale | (Center City), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Camden, New Jersey |
| Official name | Benjamin Franklin Bridge |
| Other name(s) | Ben Franklin Bridge |
| Maintained by | Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey |
| ID number | 4500010 |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | steel suspension bridge |
| Total length | 2,917.86 meters (9,573 feet) |
| Width | 39.01 meters (128 feet) |
| Longest span | 533.4 meters (1,750 feet) |
| Clearance above | 5.12 meters (16.8 feet) |
| Clearance below | 41.19 meters (135 feet) |
| History | |
| Construction cost | $37,103,765 |
| Opened | July 1, 1926 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 100,000 |
| Toll | Cars $5.00; Trucks over 7,000 lbs $7.50/axle; Buses $3.75/axle (westbound into PA) (E-ZPass) |
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge – originally named the Delaware River Bridge, and now informally called the Ben Franklin Bridge – is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority, it is one of four primary vehicular bridges between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, along with the Betsy Ross, Walt Whitman, and Tacony-Palmyra bridges. It carries Interstate 676/U.S. Route 30.
The bridge was dedicated as part of the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. From 1926 to 1929, it had the longest single span of any suspension bridge in the world.
Plans for a bridge to augment the ferries across the Delaware River began as early as 1818, when one plan envisioned using Smith/Windmill Island, a narrow island off the Philadelphia shore. But it was only in the 1910s that visions began to approach reality. The Delaware River Bridge Joint Commission (now the Delaware River Port Authority) was created in 1919.
The chief engineer of the bridge was Polish-born Ralph Modjeski, the design engineer was Leon Moisseiff, and the supervising architect was Paul Philippe Cret. Work began on January 6, 1922. At the peak of construction, 1,300 people worked on the bridge, and 15 died during its construction. The bridge was originally painted by a commercial painting company owned by David A. Salkind, of Philadelphia, which also painted the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge opened to traffic on July 1, 1926, three days ahead of its scheduled opening on the nation’s 150th anniversary. At completion, its 1,750-foot (533-meter) span was the world's longest for a suspension bridge, a distinction it held until the opening of the Ambassador Bridge in 1929.
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