Dunn Memorial Bridge

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**Dunn Memorial Bridge**
Official name	Private Parker F. Dunn Memorial Bridge
Carries	8 lanes of US 9/US 20
Crosses	Hudson River
Locale	Albany, New York and Rensselaer, New York
Maintained by	New York State Department of Transportation
ID number	1093029
Design	Steel girder bridge
AADT	36,000
Opening date	1969

The Dunn Memorial Bridge, officially known as the Private Parker F. Dunn Memorial Bridge, carries US 9 and US 20 across the Hudson River between Albany, New York and Rensselaer, New York. Completed in 1967, the highway bridge has a steel girder design. It is named for Parker F. Dunn, an Albany native who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in World War I. Today, the bridge serves as the most southern, non-tolled Hudson River crossing.

The Dunn Memorial Bridge is widely regarded as the "bridge to nowhere" because there is a noticeable stub end of the bridge on the eastern end and traffic is "forced off" the bridge onto offramps for US 9 and US 20. The bridge was originally supposed to continue on as part of the cancelled South Mall Expressway to Interstate 90 at present day Exit 8. Stub ramps for the planned exit appeared until the exit was finally constructed in 1996 for New York State Route 43.

Rensselaer's Riverfront Park is located under the eastern end of the bridge. Peregrine falcons have been observed nesting under the roadway since 1998, and the New York State Department of Environmental Consevation set up a webcam [1] to monitor them.

On July 27, 2005, the bridge was temporarily closed when a ramp leading to the Empire State Plaza split vertically, causing the roadbed to drop more than a foot. A section of the ramp, which at 89 feet tall is the uppermost one connecting to the bridge, had slipped and come to rest on a concrete supporting pier. The Department of Transportation was alerted to the situation by a call from a commuter who had driven over the gap. Two steel towers were installed to support the ramp and it was later repaired. [2] [3]