1962: The Official Opening of a Road Bridge at an Entrance to the Panama Canal

October 12, 1962

The Thatcher Ferry Bridge, which spans the Pacific Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal, was officially opened. This bridge, until the debut of the Centennial Bridge in 2004, was the only non-swinging bridge to reconnect the land masses of North America and South America that had been separated by the canal. 

The Thatcher Ferry Bridge, serving as a key link in the Pan-American Highway for over four decades, considerably expanded vehicular traffic capacity across the Panama Canal. Two older bridges likewise spanning that waterway offered much more limited capacity for traffic. 

The Thatcher Ferry Bridge owed its name to two sources, one being the fact that a ferry had crossed the canal at roughly that same location. The other source was Maurice H. Thatcher, who had served as a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission and a governor of the Canal Zone. (In addition, he was a U.S. congressman from Kentucky.)  It was the 92-year-old Thatcher who cut the ribbon at the dedication ceremony for the bridge. 

This bridge also became a magnet for controversy, something readily confirmed by the presence of Panamanian protesters at that inaugural ceremony and their insistence that the structure should instead be called the Bridge of the Americas. In 1979, that name became the new official one for the bridge after the initial steps towards Panamanian control of the canal took effect.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on the Bridge of the Americas (originally known as the Thatcher Ferry Bridge), please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_the_Americas