Commodore Barry Bridge | |
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Coordinates | 39°49′32″N 75°22′06″W / 39.82556°N 75.36833°WCoordinates: 39°49′32″N 75°22′06″W / 39.82556°N 75.36833°W |
Carries | 5 lanes of US 322 & CR 536 & 2 lanes of sidewalk |
Crosses | Delaware River |
Locale | Chester, Pennsylvania to Bridgeport, New Jersey |
Official name | Commodore John Barry Bridge |
Maintained by | Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey |
Characteristics | |
Design | steel cantilever bridge |
Total length | 13,912 feet (4,240.38 meters) |
Width | 77 feet (23.47 meters) |
Longest span | 1,644 feet (501.09 meters) |
Clearance below | 192 feet (58.52 meters) |
History | |
Construction cost | $115 million |
Opened | February 1, 1974 |
Statistics | |
Daily traffic | 35,000 |
Toll | $5.00 (westbound) (E-ZPass) |
The Commodore Barry Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans the Delaware River from Chester, Pennsylvania to Bridgeport, in Logan Township, New Jersey, USA. It is named after the American Revolutionary War hero and Philadelphia resident John Barry.
Along with the Betsy Ross Bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge, the Commodore Barry Bridge is one of the four toll bridges connecting the metropolitan Philadelphia region with southern New Jersey owned by the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA). Originally designed to connect with a now-cancelled freeway, the limited-access bridge has recently been retrofitted to better serve the local area. Between 2007 and 2011, both the DRPA and the PennDOT, in conjunction with the Chester Redevelopment Authority, built a pair of entrance-exit ramps that allowed motorists, primarily heavy truck traffic, to access the Chester Waterfront, via Pennsylvania Route 291 and Flower Street (via W. 9th Street (U.S. 13)) from I-95. Other improvements, such as deck joint replacement, concrete patching (on the approaches), and other safety and engineering improvements are either ongoing or have been completed. The bridge replaced the Chester-Bridgeport Ferry, a ferry service that, prior to the opening of the bridge in 1974, was the sole means of crossing the Delaware River from Delaware County, Pennsylvania to Gloucester County, New Jersey. Since the termination of the ferry service, along with a subsequent fire and SuperFund cleanup, the Chester side of the ferry terminal became the city-owned Barry Bridge Park with the adjacent Talen Energy Stadium (home of the Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union franchise) being opened in 2010.