Summit Bridge

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Summit Bridge

Carries	4 lanes of US 301 / DE 71 / DE 896
Crosses	Chesapeake & Delaware Canal
Locale	Summit Bridge, Delaware
Maintained by	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Design	Cantilever bridge
Opening date	1960

The Summit Bridge carries U.S. Route 301 and Delaware Routes 71 and 896 across the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, connecting Newark, Delaware with Dover, Delaware (via Delaware Rt. 71) and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (via U.S. Rt. 301). Opened in 1961, the Summit Bridge was the second four-lane high-level crossing in Delaware and was designed for a future upgrade of U.S. Rt. 301 to a four-lane limited access toll road connecting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Delaware Turnpike (I-95), but such plans have been shelved by both the Maryland and Delaware Departments of Transportation (it has since been resurrected by DelDOT as the U.S. 301 Turnpike project connecting Maryland and Delaware Route 1 near the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Bridge). The current bridge replaces a former swing span structure that was demolished when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rerouted the canal to a new sea-level channel south of Lums Pond State Park.