The Great Egg Harbor Bridge is a toll bridge along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, with tolls collected in the southbound direction. It crosses the Great Egg Harbor Bay, connecting Upper Township, in Cape May County to Somers Point in Atlantic County. The bridge crosses over a section of Egg Harbor Township.
The speed limit is 45 mph between Milepost 27 to Milepost 29, approaching and traversing the Great Egg Harbor Bridge, one of two stretches on the Parkway where the speed limit is so reduced (the other is between Milepost 126.7 and 127.7, approaching and traversing the Driscoll Bridge). The bridge runs just parallel to US 9 as it too crosses over the water. The Beesley's Point Generating Station can be seen past the US 9 bridge.
The southbound bridge was built in 1955 while the northbound bridge was built in 1973.
Before the Great Egg Harbor Bridge was completed, traffic on the Garden State Parkway was detoured onto US 9 and over the Beesley's Point Bridge. This old alignment still exists today and is slowly being consumed by nature.
In a twist of fate, Route 9 is now detoured onto the Great Egg Harbor Bridge as US 9 Temporary. The Beesley's Point Bridge immediately to the west has deteriorated in the marine environment and has been closed to traffic since June 2004.
In 2013, a project will begin to replace the southbound bridge and improve the northbound bridge. The project will also demolish the adjacent Beesley's Point Bridge.
Famous quotes containing the words egg, harbor and/or bridge:
“Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The disabusing a man strongly possessed with an opinion of his own worth is the very same ill office that was done to the fool at Athens, who fancied all the ships that came into the harbor were his own.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O, my soul.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)