Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge
| Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge | |
|---|---|
Delaware River Turnpike Bridge from the east bank of the Delaware River
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| Coordinates | 40°07′01″N 74°49′50″W / 40.11694°N 74.83056°WCoordinates: 40°07′01″N 74°49′50″W / 40.11694°N 74.83056°W |
| Carries | 4 lanes of  I‑95 (currently on NJ side only) / I‑276 (currently on PA side only) |
| Crosses | Delaware River |
| Locale |
Bristol Township, Pennsylvania and Burlington Township, New Jersey |
| Official name | Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge |
| Other name(s) | Delaware River Bridge |
| Maintained by | Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and New Jersey Turnpike Authority |
| ID number | 097276990359000 |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Steel Arch-Shaped Continuous Through Truss Bridge |
| Total length | 6,751 ft (2,058 m) |
| Width | 90 ft (27 m) |
| Longest span | 682 ft (208 m) |
| Clearance below | 135 ft (41 m) |
| History | |
| Constructed by | American Bridge Division of US Steel |
| Construction start | January 15, 1954 |
| Opened | May 25, 1956 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 42,000 (2017) |
| Toll |
Westbound (via NJ Turnpike exit 6A): $1.95 cash/E-ZPass $1.45 E-ZPass off-peak |
The Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge is a four-lane, steel, arch-shaped, continuous truss bridge that connects the Pennsylvania Turnpike's East-West Mainline with the main trunk of the New Jersey Turnpike, via the Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension (formerly known as the Pennsylvania Extension). The bridge crosses the Delaware River, connecting Bristol Township, Pennsylvania and Burlington Township, New Jersey. The bridge was closed to traffic on January 20, 2017, after a crack was discovered in a steel truss; it reopened on March 9 of that year.
The bridge was built by both the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) when the PTC completed the "Delaware River Extension" of the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Valley Forge and Bristol Township in 1955, while the NJTA built the 118-mile (190 km) NJ Turnpike between Penns Grove and Ridgefield Park between 1950 and 1952. While the Pennsylvania Turnpike itself predates its New Jersey counterpart by over 10 years (the original Irwin-Carlisle section opened in 1940), the expansion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a cross-state highway was put on hold for the duration of World War II.
Starting with the upsurge of automobile traffic in 1946, the Pennsylvania Turnpike expanded from the original 110-mile (180 km) highway west from Irwin to the Ohio border and east from Carlisle to Valley Forge. At the same time, New Jersey, lacking a high-speed corridor, undertook the building of the New Jersey Turnpike under the auspices of then-Governor of New Jersey Alfred E. Driscoll. In order to provide a high-speed, low-interruption route from New York City to the Midwest, both the PTC and the NJTA undertook the building of the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge (known locally as the "Turnpike Connector Bridge") to connect the two highways. A local AAA chapter spearheaded a failed effort to have the bridge named after William Penn.
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Wikipedia