Delaware Memorial Bridge

The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a twin-span suspension bridge spanning the Delaware River between New Castle, Delaware, and Pennsville, New Jersey. The dual-span bridge carries Interstate 295 and U.S. Route 40, serving as the primary link between Delaware and New Jersey. It is the southernmost and the largest fixed vehicular crossing of the Delaware River, and the only fixed vehicular crossing between Delaware and New Jersey. With an overall length of 10,800 feet, the bridge is of the twin-span suspension type, with the first span opening to the public on August 16, 1951, at an initial cost of $44 million. The Delaware Memorial Bridge Twin Span serves as a lasting memorial to those soldiers who gave their lives in World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, and Operation Desert Storm. Today, more than 100,000 vehicles cross the twin spans on their combined total of eight lanes daily.

Background and Origins

Some Delawareans had advocated a bridge to New Jersey as early as 1917, and more seriously in 1927–1928, when a tunnel was also suggested. Those early proposals never came to fruition, but the opening of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia in 1926 demonstrated both the technical feasibility and the public appetite for a major river crossing in the region. After the Benjamin Franklin Bridge opened, residents of Delaware and New Jersey wanted a bridge closer to Wilmington.

In April 1945, the Delaware State Highway Department was authorized to construct and operate a crossing of the Delaware River between New Castle, Delaware, and Pennsville, New Jersey. The legislature approved a bond issue for a World War II memorial bridge in April 1945, and New Jersey soon agreed to participate in the project. Planners initially considered a tunnel, but a four-lane bridge cost approximately the same, so the bridge design was chosen.

Construction began on February 1, 1949. The first bridge cost $44 million and took approximately two years to build. The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a self-supporting toll bridge operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, a bi-state agency.

Design and Engineering

The bridge was designed by the firm of Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff, with consulting help from engineer Othmar Ammann, whose other designs include the George Washington Bridge and the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge. The architectural style of the Delaware Memorial Bridge is most reminiscent of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge located in New York City, also designed by Swiss-American engineer Othmar Ammann during the 1930s.

The steel towers, of cellular construction with riveted plates and weighing 4,000 tons each, rose 440 feet above the river and, being free from diagonal bracing, displayed breathtaking verticality. The east tower, from its base on marine clays to the top, was 559 feet, taller than the Washington Monument; 12,600 miles of twenty-inch cable were used, each composed of 8,284 wires. Including approaches, the bridge measures 3.5 miles.

The 2,150-foot main span of the bridge was the sixth longest in the world at the time of its opening, with its design resembling the Oakland and Bronx-Whitestone bridges, both roughly 2,300 feet in span.

Above-water construction was massive; each anchorage block required 23,200 cubic yards of concrete and had to be delivered to the pour site by barge. Steel work for the approaches was delivered by barge, while land-side steel arrived by train, with top-side construction beginning on both sides and moving toward the center simultaneously.

The two spans look nearly identical, but the second rests mostly on steel piles rather than the concrete bases of the first, and it is heavier, for increased rigidity — the greatest pull on any one cable being twenty-two million pounds, versus eighteen million for the first bridge. Each suspension cable runs approximately 4,100 feet and there are over 8,000 individual wires in each cable.

History and Construction

By April 1951 the steel trusses on the bridge were connected and the last major construction stage — paving the roadway — could begin. Each of the four lanes on the bridge was 24 feet wide. While the paving was under way, work was completed on the toll booths in anticipation of opening day, August 16, 1951. The Governors of Delaware and New Jersey headed the procession of cars across the new bridge, which was at that time the sixth largest in the world.

By its second year of operation in 1952, the bridge carried 6.4 million vehicles, and by 1966 the count had risen to 8.2 million annually, with growth continuing each year thereafter. By 1955, nearly eight million vehicles were crossing the bridge each year, nearly twice the original projection. By 1960, the bridge was carrying more than 15 million cars and trucks per year, and this increased even more when the bridge was linked to the new Delaware Turnpike, Interstate 95, in November 1963.

The success of the original span pointed to near-term problems, as traffic was rapidly approaching the capacity of the bridge. A bi-state compact in 1962, leading to the creation of the Delaware River and Bay Authority, reassigned responsibility for the bridge and gave both states an equal say in the discussion about a second span.

Construction of the second span began in mid-1964, 250 feet (76 m) north of the original span. In September 1968, United States Vice President Hubert Humphrey dedicated the second span, built at a cost of $70 million. The original span was closed down for fifteen months for refurbishment — its suspenders were replaced and its deck and median barrier were removed and replaced with a single deck to allow four undivided lanes of traffic. Finally, on December 29, 1969, all eight lanes of the Delaware Memorial Bridge Twin Span opened to traffic, making it the world's second-longest twin suspension bridge.

In 1969, an oil tanker struck a portion of the bridge and, although structural damages to the bridge were minimal, the cost of repairs totaled nearly $1 million.

The Delaware Memorial Bridge recorded its one billionth toll transaction on December 18, 2012.

Transportation and Tolls

The bridges provide a regional connection for long-distance travelers. While not a part of Interstate 95, they connect two parts of the highway: the Delaware Turnpike (Interstate 95 in Delaware) on the south side with the New Jersey Turnpike (later Interstate 95 in New Jersey) on the north. They also connect Interstate 495, U.S. Route 13, and Route 9 in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near New Castle, with U.S. Route 130 in Pennsville Township, New Jersey.

The Delaware Memorial Bridge and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge are the only crossings of the Delaware River with both U.S. Highway and Interstate Highway designations.

The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a self-supporting toll bridge operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, a bi-state agency. Tolls are collected in the southbound direction only. One-way tolls went into effect on the Delaware Memorial Bridge in 1992. For passenger vehicles, the one-way fare is $5.00, paid by vehicles traveling from New Jersey into Delaware. The Delaware River and Bay Authority Board of Commissioners adopted a revised toll schedule for the Delaware Memorial Bridge on November 19, 2024. It is a two-phased plan with the first phase increasing the cash rates only, with no change to the E-ZPass rates including the commuter and frequent traveler discount plans.

The Delaware Memorial Bridge contains four lanes on each bridge span, with the original span supporting the flow of northbound traffic while the newer parallel span supports southbound traffic. The busiest single day for the bridge was November 29, 2009, when 79,488 vehicles crossed in one direction. The busiest weekend was August 16–18, 2019, with 211,685 vehicles crossing in one direction.

Veterans Memorial and Civic Significance

The bridges are dedicated to those from both New Jersey and Delaware who died in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. The memorial is located in Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware, and it features a reflecting pool, a statue of a soldier, and a wall containing the names of 15,000 men and women from Delaware and New Jersey who were killed in World War II, the Korean War, the War in Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf War.

Since the opening of the first bridge in 1951, annual ceremonies are held at the bridge's war memorial on Memorial Day and Veterans Day to honor the sacrifices of American war veterans. Each year on Veterans Day, a special ceremony is held at the Bridge War Memorial, which overlooks the Twin Span.

The administrative headquarters of the DRBA are in the Delaware Memorial Bridge Plaza, on the Delaware side, in New Castle County.

Modern Maintenance and Infrastructure

The Delaware River and Bay Authority began a $13 million project in 2003 to resurface the bridge, refurbish the expansion joints, upgrade the electrical system, and replace the elevators in the four towers. This work was completed in 2008.

In 2022, the DRBA began a project to apply ultra-high performance concrete to the driving surface of the eastbound span (northbound Interstate 295).

The Delaware Memorial Bridge Protection System began in July 2023. The $93 million ship collision protection system project consists of the installation of eight stone-filled dolphins, each measuring 80 feet (24 m) in diameter. Four cells are being installed at the piers supporting both eastern and western towers and will be located a minimum of 443 feet (135 m) from the edge of the Delaware River's 800-foot-wide (240 m) channel. The new Delaware Memorial Bridge Protection System is expected to be completed in September 2025.

Today, the Delaware Memorial Bridge handles more vehicles in an hour than it did the entire first day it was opened.