Friday, October 22, 2021

1974 US-322 Commodore Barry Bridge over Delaware River at Chester, PA

(Bridge HunterSatellite)

"It is the longest span of its type in the United States, however, it is the fourth longest span in the world." [Nathan Holth via BridgeHunter] The 1,655' long main span is the third longest according to PhillyRoads. It has a mid-span clearance of 192'.

DRPA
The navigation span is 800' and the total length is 13,912' (2.6 miles)

LoC
It is named after the American Revolutionary War hero and Philadelphia resident John Barry. Along with the Betsy Ross Bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge, the Commodore Barry Bridge is one of the four toll bridges connecting the metropolitan Philadelphia region with southern New Jersey

The ferry service that this bridge replaced started in 1930 with two boats and was operating four boats by 1949. A crossing took about six minutes to complete and departure intervals were as small as every five minutes on both shores. [BridgesTunnels]

The bridge opened in Feb 1974 and by that Summer "engineers detected vibrations along the main cantilever span. Some of the vibrations were serious enough to twist the upright girders, forming cracks in some of them. Although the engineers did not believe that the vibrations threatened the overall integrity of the superstructure, they recommended that permanent measures be taken. The DRPA undertook the following corrective measures: 1) splicing and welding any deficiencies in the vertical girders and 2) installation of a network of steel support cables so that the bridge beams could withstand wind velocities of up to 70 miles per hour." [PhillyRoads]

Bridges Now and Then posted
Construction on the Commodore Barry Bridge, linking Chester, Pennsylvania and Bridgeport, New Jersey. (Hagley Digital Archives)

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3 comments:

  1. Thank you for publishing this. 1974 was a critical year in Chester history.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you have any images of the Heart Association run across the bridge, a month or so before it opened for vehicle traffic? My late mother (Ruth Horn) was in charge of the Heart Association of Delaware County, in Media, and organized the event.

    ReplyDelete