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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
The following list suggests some particularly spectacular road bridges that you may need or wish to drive across if you happen to be in their area, together with a few other bridges of historical significance.
Many of these road bridges have tolls. No sales tax is charged on tolls (or perhaps where relevant the tax is included in the stated charge). In some cases tolls only apply in one direction, or may not apply or may be reduced for HOV's - High Occupancy Vehicles, having at least a specified number of occupants. HOV's are also sometimes called Car Pools. Tolls generally tend to be low - usually far less than the cost of making a diversion to avoid the bridge.
Some of these bridges have parking areas nearby from which they can be observed; a very small number also have visitor centres.
I am most certainly not an expert on bridges. If any of my descriptions of the bridges are incorrect then I look forward to someone with more knowledge of the subject putting me right.
Good explanations of the different types of bridges can be found in Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia or from this page on the web site of the Matsuo Bridge Company of Japan.
For details of major bridges in the USA, Canada and other countries I can very highly recommend the Rice University (Houston, Texas) Department of Civil Engineering's Bridges Project site.
Astoria Bridge, Oregon and Washington State (US101)
There is a magnificent bridge over the Columbia River near its mouth at Astoria, Oregon. The bridge carries US101, the Pacific Coast Highway, between Oregon and Washington State. There is a high steel girder section at each end of the bridge but the main lengthy central section is a low level artificial causeway. There is no town at the northern end of the bridge but the town of Astoria is located at its southern end. An excellent view of the bridge can be had from the Astoria Column. The bridge was completed in 1966. The southern high steel girder section of this bridge forms the world's longest continuous truss bridge, with a 1232 feet span. The entire bridge is about four miles long. This bridge was until recently subject to a toll but the toll booths have now been removed.
It was at Fort Clatsop near Astoria that the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter before commencing their return journey.
Oregon | Washington State
Atchafalaya Swamp, Louisiana
Clay Ellis of Pensacola, Florida kindly sent me the following information:
This is not a true bridge because it is a series of spans across the Atchafalaya River and Swamp, and the Morganza Floodway. However, it is eighteen miles long without returning to ground, although there are two places it could for a few hundred feet.
An interesting bit of trivia about the Atchafalaya River is that, before all the flood controls were installed, it flowed south during high water on the Mississippi and north during low water. There was a lot of argument among early explorers about this, calling each other liars, depending upon during which season a particular explorer happened to see it.
This is the only bridge, to my knowledge, across the Mississippi which is bent in the middle (22 1/2 degrees). It is at the Chain of Rocks rapids in the Mississippi, and used to carry the old Route 66 across the river. It is no longer open, but is being renovated as a bike/hike trail.
Virginia
Blue Ridge Parkway - Linn Cove Viaduct, North Carolina
At milepost 305 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Linn Cove Viaduct was the final section of the Parkway to be completed. There is a National Park Service Visitor Centre from which a short trail leads under part of the viaduct. Concrete viaduct. No toll.
North Carolina
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Virginia (US13)
See separate article.
Colorado River Bridge - Page, Arizona (US89)
Alongside the Glen Canyon Dam. Carries US89. Huge steel arch bridge with the roadway above the arch. No toll.
Arizona | Colorado Plateau | Dams | Desert Southwest | Grand Circle
Columbia River Bridges, Oregon and Washington
Examples along that part of Columbia River where it separates Washington State from Oregon include the steel girder bridge which carries US97 over the river east of The Dalles and the very lengthy bridge carrying US101 at Astoria near the mouth of the river.
Oregon | Washington State
Confederation Bridge, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick (Trans-Canada Highway, Highway 1)
See separate article.
Covered Bridges, Various States
The covered bridge design was adopted largely because it protected the timbers from the elements. The earliest covered bridges were constructed as early as 1805. Truss designs included the Burr Truss (invented by Theodore Burr), the Town Truss (invented by Ithiel Town), the Long Truss (invented by Stephen Long) and the Howe Tress. The Burr Truss combined a lattice and an arch; the others were purely lattice trusses.
A number of preserved wooden covered bridges can be seen in New England and other northeastern states.
There are a number of covered bridges near Lancaster, Ohio (southeast of Columbus).
There is a short covered bridge at Wawona in Yosemite National Park, California.
Davenport, Iowa
The first railway bridge across the Mississippi River was constructed at Davenport, Iowa in 1856.
Detroit, Michigan
The Ambassador Suspension Bridge in Detroit, Michigan had the longest span in the world of any type of bridge at the time of its completion in 1929, at 1850 feet.
Duluth, Minnesota
There is a famous 230 feet high aerial lift bridge in Duluth, Minnesota, built in 1905.
Galveston, Texas
From my map it would appear that the bridge which carries I-45 between the mainland and the city of Galveston, Texas is about two miles long.
Hite Road Bridge Over The Colorado River, Utah (Ut 95)
This bridge carries Utah State Highway 95, the Bicentennial Highway, over the Colorado River at Hite. It is a steel arch bridge, with the roadway above the arch.
Houston, Texas
The Fred Hartman Bridge near Houston, Texas is a cable-stayed bridge with a very unusual double-diamond design for its pylons, each of the two roadways passing through the widest part of each diamond. A photograph of this bridge was featured on the front cover of the 1998 edition of the official Texas state highway map.
Hudson River Bridges, New York State
This list may not be complete. Most of these bridges involve a toll.
New York State
International Bridge, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and Ontario (I-75/US2/Highway 178)
Links Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Ontario, Canada. Steel girder bridge. I-75 terminates just south of this bridge. Toll.
This bridge should not be confused with the Mackinac Bridge which connects Michigan's two peninsulas.
Michigan | Ontario
London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, Arizona
London Bridge over the River Thames was demolished and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City in Arizona, on the Colorado River south of Las Vegas, Nevada. I do not know if the reconstructed bridge actually spans the Colorado. This is a low but wide arch bridge (masonry or concrete, I think) and it should not be confused with Tower Bridge, the famous bascule bridge with two hinged spans, which is still in its original location across the River Thames in London, England.
Arizona
Mackinac Bridge, Michigan (I-75)
Bridges the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, connecting Saint Ignace on Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Mackinaw City on Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Carries I-75. Suspension bridge. Nicknamed the "Big Mac" bridge (which might lead you to think that it has two golden arches but this is not the case). The bridge was completed in 1958 (or 1957 - sources vary). The bridge was designed by David Steinman. It has a central span of 3800 feet and an overall length of 8340 feet, making it the world's longest suspension bridge at the time of its completion, and still one of the longest. The deck is about 150 feet above the water surface and carries a roadway 48 feet wide. However, the roadway is 68 feet wide, made much wider than the deck in order to break up the wind. The deck has a 38 feet deep truss. The two steel towers are 552 feet high and their foundations extend down to the bedrock more than 200 feet below the water level. The steel and concrete pier foundations each weigh over a million tons, built to withstand pressures of over 50 tons per square foot from ice build-ups. The main cables are twenty-four inches in diameter and contain a total of 42,800 miles of wire.
According to a story in USA Today during Jan-03, there is a proposal to raise the toll for this bridge from $1.50 to $2.50 in Mar-03.
This bridge should not be confused with the International Bridge which connects Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Ontario at Sault Ste Marie.
Michigan
Mississippi River Bridges, Various States
There are bridges over the Mississippi River at Natchez, Vicksburg and many other places on the Great River Road. Many are steel girder bridges. A particular feature of many of these bridges is the great length of their elevated approaches due to the need for them to extend over the levees on both sides of the river. The construction of many of these bridges was complicated by the difficulty of securing firm foundations in the area of the river. Mostly no toll.
The first major steel bridge was built across the Mississippi at Saint Louis, Missouri by the American engineer James Buchanan Eads. This bridge opened in 1874 and its three tubular steel arches span 502 feet, 520 feet and 502 feet. This bridge had two decks above the arches - road on top, rail tracks below. It had granite-faced limestone piers. The bedrock was 136 feet below the water level.
Clay Ellis of Pensacola, Florida kindly sent me this information about the bridge:
Eads' bridge is still there, but a couple of years ago I was in St. Louis and it was closed for renovation.The Greater New Orleans Bridge (built in 1958) over the Mississippi River has a span of 1575 feet and is of cantilever design.
The world's longest span swing bridge, at 545 feet, is a railway and highway bridge, completed in 1927, that crosses the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa.
Clay Ellis of Pensacola, Florida kindly sent me this information:
It isn't apparent when crossing but the Mississippi River Bridge at New Orleans is over the deepest inland water in the world, except perhaps the Mackinac Bridge of Michigan, the Mississippi River being over two hundred feet deep as it passes through New Orleans. The bed of the Mississippi drops below sea level in some places above Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Washington State
Natchez Trace Parkway - Bridge Over Tennessee State Highway 96, Tennessee
In my opinion this bridge is one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of the USA and Canada.
Near the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway, not far from Franklin, Tennessee. This is an incredibly high dual concrete arch bridge, the roadway being above the arches. No toll.
Tennessee
Natchez Trace Parkway - Tennessee River Bridge over Pickwick Lake, Alabama
At milepost 328 of the Natchez Trace Parkway. Nearby picnic area with viewpoint. Concrete bridge. No toll.
Alabama
Natural Bridges and Arches
As well as numerous bridges created by man, the USA also has some fascinating bridges and arches created by the forces of nature. By the way, a natural bridge is formed by the force of water carving a hole in the rock, while a natural arch is formed by other forces of erosion.
Arches National Park, Utah
See separate article.
Natural Bridge, Virginia
South of Lexington and Buena Vista, north of Roanoke, west of Lynchburg, near I-81, west of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Limestone arch over Cedar Creek, 215 ft) high, with a span of 90 feet at its broadest part. This is a commercial attraction with an entrance fee. It is not a National Park Service unit or a state park.
Virginia
Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah
See separate article.
Arizona
Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah
Located in the southern part of the state. Rainbow Bridge is the largest known natural bridge in the world with a span of 278 feet and a height of 309 feet.
Utah | Colorado Plateau | Desert Southwest
Louisiana
New River Bridge, West Virginia (US19)
This bridge carries US19 across the New River near Fayetteville, north of Beckley. There is a parking lot and observation area a short distance from one end of the bridge. Steel arch bridge with the roadway above the arch. The bridge was completed in 1977 (or 1978 - sources vary) and has an incredible span of 1700 feet. The total length of the bridge is 3030 feet and the roadway width is 72 feet. At the time of its construction it was the world's longest steel arch bridge. Photograph (25KB). No toll.
Clay Ellis of Pensacola, Florida kindly sent me this information about the bridge:
The New River Gorge Bridge is the world's highest bridge which was built for a true need. The Royal Gorge, in Colorado, could have been crossed more easily at another place. No, I'm not a West Virginian!According to a news item on BBC Ceefax on 28-Jul-03, the New River Bridge previously held the record for the world's largest steel arch but this has now been exceeded by the 550m (1800 feet) arch of the recently opened 2.4 mile long Lupu Bridge across the Huanpu River in Shanghai, China.
In March 2006 Clay wrote to me again, observing that the Millau Viaduct in France is now the world's highest bridge built for a true need - and that he has moved to Texas.
West Virginia
New York City Bridges, New York State and New Jersey
A number of bridges cross the Hudson and East Rivers and other waterways to connect the various boroughs of New York City.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 includes what appear to be accurate depictions of the major bridges in the New York City area and the program provides an interesting and effective method of exploring the region.
This list may not be complete.
Justin Lash of Randolph, New Jersey, very kindly sent me this fascinating information:
I imagine if you asked a hundred people in this area (even those who live on Staten Island) why the bridge is named as it is, ninety-nine would tell you because it's the outermost bridge to New Jersey from Staten Island, or some variation of that. In actuality, it was named for Eugenius H. Outerbridge who was the first chairman of the Port Authority. The "Crossing" was added to it because they obviously figured they couldn't call it the "Outerbridge Bridge." Just doesn't sound right. Anyway, I have yet to find someone who knows this upon being quizzed.
There are also a number of road tunnels under the various stretches of water in and around New York City.
New Jersey | New York State
Niagara Falls Bridges, New York State and Ontario
Jeannette Cabell Coley sent me an email to say that her great-great-grandfather, Charles Ellet, Jr., engineered and supervised the construction of the first bridge over the Niagara River at the Falls in 1848.
In 1855 a double-deck road and rail suspension bridge over the Niagara River, designed by John Roebling, was completed. This bridge had a span of 821 feet and was 245 feet above the river. It had both conventional suspension bridge catenary and vertical cables and also diagonal cable-stayed bridge cables for additional stability. This bridge was replaced by a steel arch bridge in 1897 due to increasing levels of traffic.
The Niagara-Clifton Bridge, at 840 feet a record for a steel arch bridge at the time of its completion - was destroyed by an ice-jam in 1938.
Nowadays there are several road bridges and at least one rail bridge over the Niagara River in the Niagara Falls area, including the Rainbow and Whirlpool Rapids Bridges.
The bridge crossing the Niagara River between Queenston, Ontario, and Lewiston, New York, which opened in 1965, has a 1000 feet long steel arch, the longest fixed steel rib arch span in the world. I-190 connects to the bridge on the USA side.
New York State | Ontario
Ohio River Bridges, Ohio and West Virginia
Examples include the bridge which carries I-77 over the Ohio River at Marietta.
The world's first long-span wire-cable suspension bridge, 1010 feet long, was built across the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia. Apparently this bridge deliberately slopes due to one end being higher than the other. According to Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia this bridge was designed and constructed by the German-American engineer John Roebling, who later designed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Encarta states the date of the bridge's completion as being 1846. However, I received an EMail from Beverly Fluty who lives in the Wheeling area saying:
It was excellent to find that you included the Wheeling Suspension Bridge in your inventory. Our bridge has a fascinating history which will be documented by both a book and documentary video.
The Suspension Bridge was designed by Charles Ellet, Jr.! John Roebling did submit a proposal to the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company but the nine "Managers" of the private bridge company choose Ellet. We are having a giant celebration on November 7, 1999 for the 150th anniversary of its completion.Beverly's message obviously implies that the bridge was completed on November 7, 1849. Another source also quotes Charles Ellet, Jr. as the designer of this bridge and says that it was the first suspension bridge with a span of over a thousand feet. This other source also gives the completion date as 1849 and states that the bridge was blown down in a gale in 1854 and reconstructed by Ellet, but modified by John Roebling in 1872 when diagonal bracing stays were added. Jeannette Cabell Coley sent me an email to say that this bridge was indeed designed and built by her great-great-grandfather, Charles Ellet, Jr., in 1849. Jeannette quotes the following references for those wishing to learn more about the life of Charles Ellet, Jr.: a biography entitled "Charles Ellet, Jr., The Engineer as Individualist 1810-1862" by Dr. Gene D. Lewis, Dean of History at the University of Cincinnati.(1968, Lewis was an associate professor at the time); Encyclopedia Americana Vol. 10 Grolier Inc. 1994 p.252; "Three Letters of the Revolution of 1830" appearing in The Journal of Modern History, Vol, I No. 4, December 1929.
Clay Ellis of Pensacola, Florida kindly sent me this information about the bridge:
This is an interesting bridge because it goes up and down depending upon the weight of the traffic. It goes down at one end, under a load, and rises at the unloaded end. Sort of eerie as one crosses.A suspension bridge over the Ohio at Cincinnati, designed by John Roebling, was completed in 1866. This bridge had a suspension span of 1057 feet, the longest in the world at the time of its construction. The bridge had conventional catenary and vertical suspension bridge cables, plus diagonal cable-stayed bridge cables for additional support and deck stiffening.
There is a notable steel-truss bridge over the Ohio River at Sciotoville. The bridge, completed in 1917, has a truss 1550 feet long, in two spans of 775 feet each.
Ohio | West Virginia
Parry Sound Railway Bridge, Ontario
A steel girder bridge carries a railway line high above the town of Parry Sound, Ontario.
Perrine Memorial Bridge Over The Snake River Canyon, Twin Falls, Idaho (US93)
In my opinion this bridge is one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of the USA and Canada.
The Perrine Memorial Bridge carries US93 over the Snake River Canyon between I-84 and the town of Twin Falls. It is a huge steel arch bridge with the roadway above the arch. There is no toll. The canyon is 486 feet deep but completely out of sight until you are very close to it. There are viewing sites on both sides of the bridge, from which a golf course at the bottom can be seen.
Idaho
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In 1805 a timber truss covered bridge, called the "Permanent Bridge" was constructed over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is generally considered as being one of the first covered bridges.
The first wire-cable suspension bridge was built across the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. Jeannette Cabell Coley sent me an email to say that this bridge was designed and built by her great-great-grandfather, Charles Ellet, Jr., in 1842. Jeanette tells me that Ellet saw wire suspension bridges first in France after attending the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées (School of Bridges and Causeways) in Paris in 1830 and adapted French methods to his own ideas.
The Camben Bridge over the Delaware River at Philadelphia is a suspension bridge with a 1750 feet span and an extremely wide deck width of 128 feet. It carries both a roadway and railway tracks.
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
A remarkable bridge of the vertical-lift type crosses the Arkansas River at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It has six channel spans, each 239 feet long, any one of which may be used as a lift span by attaching the lift towers to the adjoining spans. This arrangement is necessary because the main river channel tends to shift.
Arkansas
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which has over seven hundred bridges, is known as the City of Bridges.
Rio Grande River Bridge, West of Taos, New Mexico (US64)
Huge steel arch bridge, with the roadway above the arch. No toll. There is a parking lot at one end of the bridge (possibly at both ends) from which sufficiently courageous pedestrians can walk across alongside the roadway.
US64 Between Raton and Farmington, New Mexico
Rockville, Pennsylvania
The world's longest stone-arch railroad viaduct is at Rockville, Pennsylvania, where four tracks of the former Penn Central Railroad (now Amtrak) are carried over the Susquehanna River. The Rockville viaduct, opened in 1902, includes 48 arches with 70 feet spans and has a total length of 3809 feet.
Royal Gorge Bridge, Colorado
See separate article.
Ruck-A-Chucky Bridge, California
I wasn't sure whether this very unusual structure was a real bridge, a possible bridge design which wasn't actually chosen, or an elaborate engineering hoax. The location is ten miles upstream of the proposed site of Auburn Dam in California. At this point there was a need for a bridge to connect two roads, one on each side of a steep sided gorge, so as to form a U-bend. The solution was a bridge with a U-shaped curved flat deck, supported by numerous cables anchored on the sloping hillsides on each side of the gorge. There are no towers and no supporting piers below the roadway. One web site has computer simulated images of the bridge. Another web site describes it as "the most famous bridge never built". My thanks to Paul Tierney for telling me about this bridge.
Reader feedback: in April 2007 George Amaro, retired bridge engineer formerly with the California Department of Transportation for many years, kindly sent me the following complete explanation for which I am extremely grateful:
R-A-C [Ruck-A-Chucky] was an interesting proposal of T. Y. Lin, who was a professor of Civil Engineering at UC Berkeley when I attended there. As he approached retirement, he formed an engineering firm based in San Francisco (now known as T.Y. Lin International, Inc.
"T.Y" was full of ideas for solving unusual problems. The construction of the Auburn Dam would cause the relocation -- to a higher elevation -- of many of the roads in the canyon upstream of the dam. R-A-C was one of T. Y. Lin's proposals. The dam was never built. It is still talked about at times but nothing seems to come from the talks. With no dam, there was (is) no need for R-A-C. It was an interesting proposal.
I am a retired bridge engineer. I started working for the Bridge Department of the California Division of Highways in the summer of 1953 while I was a student in college. I retired from the Division of Structures of the California Department of Transportation (same organisation but with expanded duties) in August 1998. My most recent activity (2001 - 2002) for the State was doing an in depth review of the plans for the suspension span portion of the new east side of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge.
According to one source it is apparently possible to travel over all the major bridges in the San Francisco Bay area by public transport, and furthermore to complete such a journey in one day.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 includes what appear to be accurate depictions of the major bridges in the San Francisco Bay area and the program provides an interesting and effective method of exploring the region.
This list may not be complete.
Antioch Bridge
Carries California Highway 160 over the San Joaquin River some considerable distance east and slightly south of Vallejo, near the town of Antioch. Steel plate girder bridge. Length 1.8 miles, of which 460 feet is over water. Opened 1978 (replacing an earlier bridge which opened in 1926). Toll for normal cars: $2, northbound only, collected at the southern end.
Carquinez Bridge
Also called the Carquinez Strait Bridge. Carries I-80 between Vallejo and the East Bay area. It crosses the waterway which connects San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay. It consists of two separate parallel steel girder bridges (cantilever steel trusses with concrete roadways), one opened in 1927, the other in 1958. While the two bridges are superficially of very similar design, the details of their construction apparently differ considerably. Length 0.8 miles (two 1100 feet spans plus 500 feet anchor spans). The bedrock lies 150 feet below the water's surface. The bridge runs north-south but in terms of I-80 it runs east-west. Driving over the bridge from south to north, you are travelling eastbound on I-80. Toll for normal cars: $2, in one direction only, collected at the northern end (the toll is quoted by one source as applying only to eastbound traffic). When we used the bridge eastbound in June 2000 there was a $2 toll but there was also a sign indicating no toll for carpools (cars carrying at least a certain number of passengers) during certain hours - we didn't manage to read the sign in detail and paid our $2 anyway.
The older bridge is due to be replaced by a suspension bridge which is currently under construction.
Dumbarton Bridge
Joins the two sides of San Francisco Bay, near its southern end. It carries California State Highway 84 between San Mateo and Alameda County. Steel box girder and pre-stressed concrete approach spans. Total length 8,600 feet. Channel span 340 feet. A new bridge constructed in 1984 replaced the original bridge which was built in 1927. Toll for normal cars: $2, westbound only, collected at the eastern end.
Work on the construction of a new bridge (presumably in parallel with the existing structures) is due to start soon.
John Lester kindly sent me this additional information:
Most locals simply call this the Benicia Bridge. There are two parallel bridges. One is for the six lane I-680 freeway and the other is a railroad draw bridge. The steel girder bridge is still in use by Amtrak. A points of interest is the "Mothball Fleet" just north of this bridge where the US Navy stores almost a hundred various ships.
At the western end of the bridge lies the town of San Quentin, and the prison of the same name made famous by the Johnny Cash song.
The third and longest floating bridge close to Seattle is The Governor Albert D. Rosselini (Evergreen Point) Floating Bridge. This is a concrete-pontoon bridge, more than a mile long, consisting of twenty-five floating sections bolted together and anchored in place, with a telescoping floating span that can be opened to permit the passage of large ships.
There is a fourth floating bridge in the Seattle area, namely the Hood Canal Floating Bridge across Puget Sound, northwest of Seattle.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge carries Washington State Highway 16 across the Tacoma Narrows, between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula to its north. The bridge, which opened in 1951, is the replacement for the famous original suspension bridge which collapsed due to resonance in winds of only 40 miles per hour a few months after its completion in 1940. The original bridge had a suspended span of 2800 feet with a very narrow and thin roadway deck (39 feet in width, 8 feet in depth). The resonance problem was made worse by the roadway having solid sides instead of the open truss design which tends to break up the wind. The replacement bridge, also a suspension bridge, has a roadway width of 60 feet and a truss deck with a depth of 33 feet.
Many thanks to Steven Arnold who supplied not only much of the detailed information about the Seattle floating bridges and also the excellent photograph (29KB) of two of the floating bridges.
Washington State
Seven Mile Bridge, Overseas Highway, Florida (US1)
Of the many bridges and causeways of the Overseas Highway the Seven Mile Bridge just west of Marathon is the longest. This is mainly an artificial trestle causeway. No toll.
Florida
St Lawrence River Bridges, New York State, Ontario and Québec
There are a number of impressive bridges across the St Lawrence River, both where it forms the border between Ontario and New York State (east of Kingston, the International Bridge near Ogdensburg and at Cornwall) and also in the Province of Québec where the river is wider (via an island near the Ontario border, five bridges at Montréal, at Cap-de-la-Madelaine/Trois Rivieres, and at the City of Québec).
A steel girder cantilever railway bridge in the City of Québec collapsed during construction in 1907. A replacement bridge suffered the collapse of its centre span while it was being raised into position in 1916. The bridge was finally successfully completed in 1917. It has a main span of 1800 feet with 600 feet side spans. It carries both a double-track railroad and a roadway. This bridge was the world's longest cantilever span at the time of its construction and according to one source this remains true to the present day. The bridge's design bears some resemblance to that of the Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland.
Most bridges across the St Lawrence involve a toll.
New York State | Ontario | Québec
Sunshine Skyway, Tampa/St Petersburg, Florida (I-275)
Carries I-275 across the mouth of Tampa Bay. The previous twin steel girder bridges have now been replaced by a single cable-stayed bridge with a total length of 21,877 feet. The roadway of the new bridge is 175 feet above water level. One of the old bridges was badly damaged when it was struck by a freighter in 1980. The replacement bridge was completed in 1986. Toll.
External link: Sunshine Skyway Bridge This is a text only university dissertation describing the history and design of the bridge. I found it extremely interesting. Checked Aug-98.
Florida
Vancouver, British Columbia
A number of road bridges connect the various parts of the city of Vancouver, mainly over the various channels of the Fraser River and its tributaries. These all appear to be toll-free. I believe that one particularly famous example is the Lions Gate Bridge.
The Alex Fraser Bridge, previously called the Annacis Bridge, crosses the Fraser River near Vancouver. This is a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 1526 feet and side spans of 600 feet each. The bridge was completed in 1986 and has concrete towers 506 feet high. The bridge has a reinforced concrete and steel girder deck.
The Vancouver Skytrain light railway system crosses the Fraser River by means of a cable-stayed bridge with a span of 1115 feet, opened in 1990.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge near the city is a well-known tourist attraction. It is a footbridge high above the Capilano River gorge. Entrance fee.
Shaun Laughy kindly sent me this message:
I notice that you mention the famous Capilano Suspension Bridge in the Vancouver, BC area. What most people don't realise is that there is another, equally thrilling attraction one valley to the east: the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. Even better, this one is free for all to enjoy! I have included, for you information, the official link for the Lynn Valley Park, in which the bridge is located. (External link checked Apr-00; the site includes a photograph of the bridge).British Columbia
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EMail me While I have an interest in the subject of bridges, I am not an expert. Therefore I regrettably cannot offer any information on the subject other than that which appears on these pages.
Most recently modified 13-Apr-07