Kings Highway Bridge was located on the Nansemond River in the independent city of Suffolk, Virginia, United States. Built in 1928, it carried traffic on the Kings Highway, also known as State Route 125, for over 75 years.
The drawbridge was deemed unsafe and closed to traffic in March 2005 by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In March 2007, VDOT announced that the bridge would be demolished and removed, and that the agency has no plans to replace it. The bridge was removed later in the year. In 2008, several boats struck debris from the old bridge.
About 3,300 motorists a day used the bridge that connected Chuckatuck and Driver. Now, they face detours of as much as 19 miles. The cost of a new bridge for the King's Highway crossing is estimated at $48 million, far more than could be recovered through collection of tolls at that location.
Famous quotes containing the words kings, highway and/or bridge:
“Why should kings and nobles have
Pictured trophies to their grave,
And we, churls, to thee deny
Thy pretty toys with thee to lie—
A more harmless vanity?”
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834)
“Off Highway 106
At Cherrylog Road I entered
The ‘34 Ford without wheels,
Smothered in kudzu,
With a seat pulled out to run
Corn whiskey down from the hills,”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)
“I see four nuns
who sit like a bridge club,
their faces poked out
from under their habits,”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)