| Tacony-Palmyra Bridge | |
|---|---|
Bridge as seen from the New Jersey shoreline |
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| Official name | Tacony-Palmyra Bridge |
| Carries | 3 lanes of PA Route 73 and NJ Route 73, and 2 sidewalks |
| Crosses | Delaware River |
| Locale | Philadelphia (Tacony), Pennsylvania and Palmyra, New Jersey |
| Maintained by | Burlington County Bridge Commission |
| ID number | 3000001 (NJ), 677301999100150 (PA) |
| Design | steel arch bridge with bascule |
| Total length | 3,569 feet (1115.3 meters) |
| Width | 38 feet (11.6 meters) |
| Vertical clearance | 14.5 feet (4.42 meters) |
| Clearance below | Arch = 64 feet (19.5 meters) Bascule = 55 feet (11.8 meters) |
| Opened | August 14, 1929 |
| Toll | $2.00 (westbound) (E-ZPass) |
| Daily traffic | 50,000 (1999) |
The Tacony–Palmyra Bridge is a combination steel arch, double-leaf bascule bridge across the Delaware River, connecting New Jersey Route 73 in Palmyra, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Route 73 in the Tacony section of Philadelphia. The bridge has a total length of 3,659 feet (1,115 m) and spans 2,324 feet (708 m). It was designed by Polish-born architect Ralph Modjeski. After one and a half years of construction, it opened in 1929 to replace the local ferry service. Though it opened as a four-lane bridge, the lanes were reduced in a 1996–97 1½-year bridge deck-replacement project to three wider lanes (two toll lanes northwestward into Philadelphia, and one free lane southeastward into New Jersey).
The bridge is owned and maintained by the Burlington County Bridge Commission. The bridge has a $2 toll, which can be paid using E-ZPass.[1] Despite interruptions due to openings for passing shipping traffic (the Delaware River is navigable as far as Van Sciver Lake near Bristol, Pennsylvania), it serves as a lower-cost alternative to the six-lane, high-span Betsy Ross Bridge, which charges $5 for the westward crossing.
A walkway on the bridge is open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
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