History
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. 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 PA Route 291 (W. 2nd Street), U.S. Route 13 (W. 9th Street) 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.
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.
Read more about this topic: Commodore Barry Bridge
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