Commmodore John Barry Bridge - Between Chester, PA and Bridgeport, NJ
N 39° 49.686 W 075° 22.280
18S E 468224 N 4408743
The Commodore Barry Bridge is a Cantilever Bridge across the Delaware River from Chester, PA to Bridgeport, NJ.
Waymark Code: WMBVZX
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 06/25/2011
Views: 7
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). Both the DRPA and the PennDOT are in the process of building two new exit ramps that will allow motorists to access the Chester Waterfront (via Pennsylvania Route 291) from I-95.
Construction of the bridge began on April 14, 1969, and it opened to traffic on February 1, 1974. It has a total length of 13,912 feet (4,240 m), and a main span of 1,644 feet (501 m), making the bridge the fourth longest cantilever bridge in the world, and the longest in the United States.[2] The road has a total of five lanes, divided by a zipper barrier, in which a machine can configure the number of lanes in each direction, depending upon traffic volume or construction. The bridge is designated as part of U.S. Route 322 and has direct connections with U.S. Route 13 and Interstate 95 in Chester and U.S. Route 130 in Bridgeport, with a connection to Interstate 295 and the New Jersey Turnpike within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius of the bridge. It replaced an earlier ferry service which ceased operation on January 31, 1974.
Originally created to be a connection to one of the then-proposed freeways in New Jersey, the Commodore Barry Bridge was to connect Interstate 95 near Chester to, at one point, the Atlantic City Expressway near Hammonton, but those plans were eventually scrapped when it was realized that many people in the college town of Glassboro would be affected. There are new talks of possibly upgrading US 322 to a freeway from US 130 to Interstate 295's current Exit 11, or even as far as the New Jersey Turnpike's Exit 2. There is no mention if this new freeway would be included in the Interstate Highway System, though it hasn't been ruled out yet, either.
Length of bridge: 13,912 ft
Height of bridge: 192 ft
What type of traffic does this bridge support?: Motor Vehicles
What kind of gap does this bridge cross?:
Delaware River
Date constructed: 1969-1974
Is the bridge still in service for its original purpose?: Yes
Name of road or trail the bridge services: US Highway 322
Location:
Chester, PA and South NJ
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