Washington Crossing Bridge

The Washington Crossing Bridge (built in 1904) is at the approximate location that Washington’s troops crossed the Delaware on Christmas Night in 1776. It’s too bad they didn’t build the bridge a few decades earlier!

The first bridge at this location was an timber bridge, and it is was built around 1831. Unfortunately, this bridge was swept away by a flood on January 8, 1841. A replacement bridge was built, and it operated until October 10, 1903, when it was also carried away by a flood. The current bridge was built in 1904 as a private toll bridge. On April 25, 1922, the bridge was jointly purchase by New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the toll was removed.

This bridge is a rare, long, multi-span, example of its truss type. It is a six-span, eight panel, rivet-connected, double-intersection Warren Through Truss Bridge. The rubble stone-faced masonry substructure units are from the original bridge. It has a very narrow deck, but still allows cars to travel in both directions. The pedestrian sidewalk was added in 1926.

The flood of August 19, 1955 did considerable damage to the bridge. Floating debris smashed against the bridge, and damaged all 6 spans. The damaged members were replaced, and the bridge reopened on November 19, 1955.

In the fall of 1994, the bridge underwent an extensive structural rehabilitation. Many of the truss members were replaced with new galvanized members. The floor beams and open steel grid deck was replaced in the first three bays of each end span. The remaining steel was blast cleaned, metalized, and painted. A new wooden sidewalk was installed, and renovations were made to both bridge approaches.

This bridge has been classified as functionally obsolete. It was a 15 mph speed limit, a 3 ton weight limit and a vertical clearance in 10 feet. The width between the wheel guards is 15 feet, resulting in two 7.5 foot lanes. This is 4.5 feet less than the standard 12 foot lane on an interstate highway. Due to these limitation, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has begun discussing a plan to replace the bridge. The have announced that in June of 2024, they plan to hire a consulting firm to perform an environmental review and identify and study obstacles to building a new bridge. The permitting, acquisition and design of the new bridge will likely be in 2027, with construction occurring a few years after that.