| Sarah Mildred Long Bridge | |
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Sarah Mildred Long Bridge seen from Kittery, ME. |
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| Official name | Sarah Mildred Long Bridge |
| Carries | US 1 Bypass |
| Crosses | Piscataqua River |
| Locale | Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, ME |
| Maintained by | Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority |
| ID number | 021702510010800[1] |
| Design | Steel Truss Lift Bridge |
| Total length | 854.7 m (2,804 ft) |
| Width | 9.1 m (29.9 ft) |
| Vertical clearance | 5.09 m (16.7 ft) |
| Clearance below | 41 m (134.5 ft) (Lift span open) |
| Opened | 1940 |
| Daily traffic | 14900 (1990) |
The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is a lift bridge that carries the US 1 Bypass over the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine. The bridge is a double deck truss bridge, with the US 1 Bypass road deck above and a railroad bed below.
The bridge features two separate movable spans. While the main lift span and its towers are the obvious primary moving feature, the second moving span is only apparent to water and rail traffic. On the north side of the bridge, the first non-trussed section of rail bed lifts up and moves south as a retractable bridge, coming to rest on top of the rail tracks inside the truss. This creates a waterway large enough for most recreational boats to pass through without the need for interruption of automobile traffic on the bridge.
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Completed in 1940, the bridge is the second to carry motor vehicle traffic between Maine and New Hampshire at Portsmouth, and replaced a river crossing dating from 1822.[2] The bridge was the direct result of the work of the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority, which had been formed in 1937. The major goal of the bridge project was to relieve congestion in downtown Portsmouth and Kittery, where US 1 crossed the river via the Memorial Bridge, which had opened in 1923.
From 1960 until 1972, the bridge, along with the US 1 Bypass north of the Portsmouth Circle, filled a gap in Interstate 95, which had been designated along both the New Hampshire Turnpike and the Maine Turnpike. Although most of the Bypass is four lanes wide, the bridge itself originally had only a three-lane roadbed, with traffic on the center lane switching direction depending on load (the bridge has since been reduced to just two lanes). This, combined with being a drawbridge, placed the bridge far below Interstate highway standards. The turnpikes, and therefore I-95 in the two states, did not directly connect until the opening of the Piscataqua River Bridge and the extensions of I-95 leading to it in the early 1970s.
The railroad track that runs across the bridge was originally part of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and connected to South Berwick via an easement that is now Rt. 236. The bridge replaced a railroad trestle that was located just upriver. The trestle collapsed on September 10, 1939, sending the engine (B&M #3666) and baggage car to the bottom of the river, where they remain. It had been weakened when a caisson used in the construction of the new bridge dragged its anchor cables, which pulled out several of the trestle's bents.
Currently, the tracks lead only to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and are used for the transportation of nuclear materials.
For many years, the bridge was simply known as the "Maine-New Hampshire (Interstate) Bridge". In 1987, the bridge was renamed to honor Sarah M. Long, who had been an employee of the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority for 50 years. Starting with the agency in 1937 when the Authority was created, Ms. Long filled a number of positions, from secretary to executive director.[3]
Due to its location in Portsmouth Harbor between the Memorial Bridge and the Piscataqua River Bridge, the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is sometimes simply referred to as "the middle bridge" or "the old toll bridge."
As of January 2008, New Hampshire is planning to take control of the bridge from the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority so that it can spend an estimated $1.2 million to repair the bridge.[1] A bill passed by the New Hampshire Senate contemplates splitting maintenance costs with Maine, pending approval by the United States Congress to dissolve the Authority.[4]
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