Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 13, 1940 In western Kentucky, the Livermore Bridge was officially opened. This through truss bridge starts at the city of Livermore in McLean County, crosses over the Rough River, spans a small part of Ohio County, and then ends up on the south bank of the Green River back in McLean County. That design for... Continue Reading →
November 6, 1998 The Raftsund Bridge in the northern region of Norway was officially opened to traffic. This structure provides a road route across the Raftsundet strait between Austvågøya and Hinnøya, which are among the larger islands of the Lofoten archipelago in Norway’s Nordland county. The Raftsund Bridge measures 2,333 feet (711 meters) in length and... Continue Reading →
October 27, 1948 In southwestern Michigan’s city of St. Joseph, the Blossomland Bridge was dedicated in a series of evening ceremonies. This drawbridge was built to carry U.S. Route 31 (US 31) across the St. Joseph River (That segment of US 31 is now part of Michigan Highway 63.) There had been a longtime need... Continue Reading →
On August 6, 1938, a newly constructed steel through arch bridge was formally opened in Middlesex County in south-central Connecticut. This structure, spanning the Connecticut River and connecting the city of Middletown with the town of Portland, took the place of a drawbridge that had been opened in 1896. The building of a replacement bridge... Continue Reading →
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a newly built bridge across Lake Champlain was officially opened to traffic on November 7, 2011. The Lake Champlain Bridge connects Crown Point, New York, with Chimney Point, Vermont. This structure replaced a bridge that had opened at that location in 1929 and was demolished in 2009. It took only about... Continue Reading →
September 22, 1986 The Alex Fraser Bridge was officially opened in Canada. This cable-stayed bridge carries British Columbia Highway 91 over the Fraser River and connects the cities of Richmond and New Westminster with the community of North Delta in the metropolitan region of Vancouver, British Columbia. The northern end of the bridge is on Annacis... Continue Reading →
September 3, 2013 A bicycle-and-pedestrian path on the newly constructed eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (famously nicknamed the Bay Bridge) made its debut. The noontime opening of the completed two-thirds of the path took place the day after the roadway portion of the new span was inaugurated. A segment of the original... Continue Reading →
August 28, 2018 In England’s North East region, the recently completed Northern Spire Bridge within the city and metropolitan borough of Sunderland was opened to pedestrians. This two-span cable-stayed bridge carries the highway A1231 over the River Wear and serves as a link between the Sunderland suburbs of Pallion and Castletown. The 1,102-foot (336-meter)-long structure... Continue Reading →
August 25, 1860 The Victoria Bridge in Canada was dedicated. This bridge, which spans the St. Lawrence River and connects Montreal with the south shore city of Saint-Lambert, was officially opened about eight months after the first trains had passed over the new structure. The Victoria Bridge was the first bridge over the St. Lawrence... Continue Reading →
August 14, 1929 Despite rainy weather, the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge spanning the Delaware River made its debut amid great fanfare. This steel arch, double-leaf bascule structure links the borough of Palmyra, New Jersey, with the Tacony neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia. The bridge, which replaced a ferry service that had been operating in the vicinity since 1922, was designed by... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 