Lower Trenton Bridge

Coordinates: 40 ° 12 ′ 38 ″  N , 74 ° 46 ′ 6 ″  W.

Lower Trenton Bridge
Lower Trenton Bridge over the Delaware River, 2014
Official name	Lower Trenton Toll Supported Bridge
use	Road bridge
Crossing of	Delaware River
place	Morrisville and Trenton
construction	Truss bridge
overall length	312 m
Longest span	64 m
opening	1928
location

The Lower Trenton Bridge , also known as the Lower Trenton Toll Supported Bridge , is a two-lane road bridge over the Delaware River between Morrisville , Pennsylvania and Trenton , New Jersey .

description

The Lower Trenton Bridge (above), the Trenton – Morrisville Toll Bridge (middle) and the Morrisville – Trenton Railroad Bridge (below), with Trenton in the background .

The Warren / Camelback truss bridge is divided into five steel segments from 51 m to 64 m in length and has a total length of 312 m. The stone pillars of the bridge go back to the previous bridges as far as 1806 and have been extended and expanded many times. Today's road bridge is not subject to toll , but its use is restricted to vehicles up to 5 tons. It led US Highway 1 until 1952 , which was then relocated to the neighboring Trenton – Morrisville Toll Bridge . Both bridges are operated by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission .

In 1935, the writing TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES was placed on the outside of the truss downstream , giving the bridge the nickname Trenton Makes The World Takes Bridge (or Trenton Makes Bridge for short ). The lettering is supposed to symbolize the importance of the city as an industrial center and trading center between New York City and Philadelphia since the 18th century and was restored in 2005.

history

At the current location of the Lower Trenton Bridge, the first bridge over the Delaware River was put into operation in 1806. The covered wooden bridge was designed by Theodore Burr, the inventor of the Burr truss construction . It was 9.4 m wide and offered space for four lanes, one lane for pedestrians and one for horse and cart in each direction. A wagon track was temporarily given railway tracks in 1842, which were moved to a separate track bed after the bridge was widened in 1848. In 1874 the pillars were widened downstream and a separate double-track bridge section was built for rail traffic. The former wooden bridge was demolished in 1875. Until the construction of today's steel bridge in 1928, the extended pillars supported various bridges (parts) for road and rail traffic. The Pennsylvania Railroad built a separate four-track railroad bridge downstream in 1903 with the Morrisville – Trenton Railroad Bridge .

literature

• Frank T. Dale: Bridges Over the Delaware River: A History of Crossings. Rutgers University Press, 2003, ISBN 9780813532134 , pp. 7-12.
• Frank Griggs, Jr .: Trenton Bridge: First Bridge across the Delaware River. In: STRUCTURE magazine. March 2014, pp. 34-36.
• Steven M. Richman: The Bridges of New Jersey: Portraits of Garden State Crossings. Rutgers University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780813537825 , pp. 84-87.

Web links

Commons : Lower Trenton Bridge  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Lower Trenton Toll-Supported Bridge. Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.
• Lincoln Highway, Running from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, Fallsington, Bucks County, PA. Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. PA-592.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Lower Trenton Toll-Supported Bridge. Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
2. ^ ^{A b} Steven M. Richman: The Bridges of New Jersey: Portraits of Garden State Crossings. Rutgers University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780813537825 , pp. 86 f.
3. ^ Frank T. Dale: Bridges Over the Delaware River: A History of Crossings. Rutgers University Press, 2003, ISBN 9780813532134 , pp. 9-11.

Upstream Calhoun Street Bridge

Crossing the Delaware River

Downriver Trenton – Morrisville Toll Bridge