Tobin Bridge

Tobin Bridge
The Tobin Bridge viewed from East Boston
Coordinates	42°23′05″N 71°02′51″W / 42.38483°N 71.04755°W / 42.38483; -71.04755Coordinates: 42°23′05″N 71°02′51″W / 42.38483°N 71.04755°W / 42.38483; -71.04755
Carries	US 1
Crosses	Mystic River
Locale	Boston, Massachusetts
Official name	Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge
Maintained by	Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Characteristics
Design	three-span double-deck cantilevered truss bridge
Material	steel
Total length	11,906 feet (3,629 m)
Width	36 feet (11 m)
Longest span	800 ft (244 m)
Clearance below	135 feet (41 m)
History
Construction begin	April 12, 1948
Opened	February 27, 1950
Statistics
Toll	$1.25 E-ZPass ($0.30 for local residents), $1.55 pay-by-mail (auto rate) for either direction.

The Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge (formerly and still sometimes referred to as the Mystic River Bridge or less often the Mystic/Tobin Bridge) is a cantilever truss bridge that spans more than two miles (3 km) from Boston to Chelsea over the Mystic River in Massachusetts. The bridge is the largest in New England. It is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and carries U.S. Route 1. It was built between 1948 and 1950 and opened to traffic on February 2, 1950, replacing the former Chelsea Street Bridge. The 36-foot (11 m) wide roadway has three lanes of traffic on each of the two levels with Northbound traffic on the lower level and Southbound traffic on the upper level.

The bridge is a three-span cantilevered truss bridge at 1,525 ft (465 m) in total length. The center span is longest at 800 ft (244 m) and the maximum truss height is 115 ft (35 m). There are 36 approach spans to the North and 32 to the South. The roadway is seven lanes wide between the shortest (439 ft; 134 m) span and the center to accommodate the now-unused toll plaza. The Northbound toll plaza was closed in the 1980s; the Southbound toll plaza was closed on July 21, 2014.

The bridge was originally operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority, which, according to the original plan, was to remove the tolls once the $27 million in bonds used to finance the bridge's construction were retired in 1978. Instead, the tolls were increased to 25 cents to cover the closing of the Northbound toll plaza in the 1980s. Starting in the early 1990s the tolls increased sharply to help pay for the Big Dig. As of October 28, 2016, the toll is $1.55 for non-commercial cars traveling in either direction ($1.25 with an E-ZPass issued by any toll agency, and $0.15 for registered residents of Charlestown and Chelsea with an E-ZPass).