Skip to main content

Tacony-Palmyra Bridge

Image
By

Spanning the Delaware River between the neighborhood of Tacony in northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Palmyra, New Jersey, the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge was initially constructed in order to fulfill a glaring transportation need, which was to have meaningful crossings between Philadelphia and Trenton. At first, there was a car ferry between Tacony and Palmyra starting in 1922, with ferry slips built close to trolley lines on the Pennsylvania side of the river. But that soon proved to be quite popular and within a few years, there was a desire to replace the car ferry with a bridge at the same place the ferry crossed the Delaware River, further connecting northeast Philly with South Jersey.

It was in 1928 when local investors hedged their bets on having a tolled bridge built at the ferry between Tacony and Palmyra and formed the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge Company. The company hired  engineer Rudolph Modjeski, to design the bridge. Modjeski also designed the Manhattan Bridge and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Construction began in February 1928 and the new bridge opened to traffic in August 1929, a mere 18 months and $4 million dollars later. At the time, the toll was 35 cents and an average of 3,500 cars a day made the trip. In five years, the number of vehicles doubled. Today, the bridge has a $4 cash toll and $3 E-ZPass toll for Pennsylvania bound traffic. Approximately 70,000 vehicles per day use the bridge. The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge was privately owned and operated until 1948, when the Burlington Bridge Commission purchased the bridge. At one time, the bridge carried the eastern terminus of US 422, but today is designated as part of PA 73 and NJ 73.

The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge has a total bridge length is 3659 feet while vertical clearance under the main span is 61 feet at high tide. While the most visible part of the bridge is an arch, there is also a 260 foot long bascule span with counterweighted decks that pivot upwards to allow shipping to pass underneath. The drawbridge design was a political compromise in order to minimize construction delays and reduce costs. It is an attractive bridge and on a clear day, you can easily see the skyline of Center City Philadelphia. I've taken some photos of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge from the bridge itself, along with some photos taken at the Palmyra Cove Nature Park on the New Jersey side of the bridge.












How to Get There:


Sources and Links:
Tacony-Palmyra Bridge - Delaware River Heritage Trail
Tacony-Palmyra Bridge - PhillyRoads.com
NJ 73 - Alps' Roads
PA 73 - Alps' Roads

Labels:
Location: Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, 1300 NJ-73, Palmyra, NJ 08065, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hawaii Route 8930

By
Hawaii Route 8930 is a 2.5-mile State Highway on the Island of O'hau.  Hawaii Route 8930 is aligned over Kualakai Parkway over the course of its entire alignment south from Interstate H-1 to Kapolei Parkway.  Hawaii Route 8930 is one of the newest Hawaii Routes only having been completed during 2010.   This page is part of the Gribblenation O'ahu Highways page.  All Gribblenation and Roadwaywiz media related to the highway system of O'ahu can be found at the link below: https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-oahu-highways-page.html Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 8930 The history of Hawaii Route 8930 is brief given it is a modern facility.  Hawaii Route 8930 and what was known as "North-South Road" were built to facilitate the developing areas of Kapolei on western O'ahu.  According to hawaiihighways.com the first stage of Hawaii Route 8930 was completed from Kapolei Parkway north to Farrington Highway as a four-lane highway during November...
Post a Comment
Read more

Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road

By
Madera County Road 607 is an approximately seven-mile rural unsurfaced highway which spans from Road 600 near Raymond west to Road 29.   Road 607 west from Raymond Road Cemetery (established in 1905) is part of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road corridor surveyed in 1853. The corridor lies in the gap between Fresno Crossing at the Fresno River west to Newton's Crossing at the Chowchilla River. The Buchanan Copper Mine would be along what is now Road 607 in the namesake Buchanan Hollow during July 1863. The Buchanan Mine is thought to have once had a population of between 1,000-1,500 residents by the early 1870s. Copper prices would decline in the decade after the Civil War and much of the activity at Buchanan shifted towards cattle ranching. The last businesses in the community would shutter during World War II and it is now a true ghost town. Part 1; the history of Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road What is now Road 607 was a component of the larger Sto...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old US Route 60/70 through Hell (Chuckwall Valley Road and Ragsdale Road)

By
Back in 2016 I explored some of the derelict roadways of the Sonoran Desert of Riverside County which were part of US Route 60/70; Chuckwalla Valley Road and Ragsdale Road. US 60 and US 70 were not part of the original run of US Routes in California.  According to USends.com US 60 was extended into California by 1932.  US 60 doesn't appear on the California State Highway Map until the 1934 edition. USends.com on US 60 endpoints 1934 State Highway Map Conversely US 70 was extended into California by 1934, it first appears on the 1936 State Highway Map. USends.com on US 70 endpoints 1936 State Highway Map When US 60 and US 70 were extended into California they both utilized what was Legislative Route Number 64 from the Arizona State Line west to Coachella Valley.  LRN 64 was part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act routes.  The original definition of LRN 64 routed between Mecca in Blythe and wasn't extended to the Arizona State Line until 1931 acc...
3 comments
Read more