We see how much we take the Delaware River bridges for granted when in January, discovery of a crack in a supporting truss for the Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge connecting Bristol Township and Burlington Township caused the span’s shutdown.
Out of service indefinitely now, the closure has created commuting problems and exacted a toll (pun intended) on local businesses.
Those hardships and the measures taken to solve the problem are better described elsewhere.
Few today can recall a time when there was no Benjamin Franklin Bridge (completed 1926), Betsy Ross (1976), Walt Whitman (completed 1957), or our own Tacony-Palmyra (opened 1929).
Two recent donations, as well as some previously published items found here, might help us better appreciate these remarkable achievements in engineering and construction.
Pop-quiz question, kids. How did folks around here get to Philly before 1926?
Honk if you remember.
Or, if you don’t, see the feature article in the September 2013 Gaslight News.
“When the well is dry we know the value of water” – Benjamin Franklin
