WASHINGTON CROSSING – The narrow, weight-restricted, and operationally challenged Washington Crossing Toll-Supported Bridge’s steel superstructure turns 120 years old today. Happy birthday, bridge.
The bridge, which was constructed for two former closely aligned shareholder-owned local companies, opened on the morning of April 11, 1905. It was then operated as a privately owned tolled crossing for the next 17 years.
The long-defunct New Jersey Bridge Company of Manasquan, N.J. built the six-span steel double-intersecting Warren-truss superstructure in 1904 and 1905. The small steel-bridge-building outfit had been contracted by the crossing’s two ownership companies — the legacy Taylorsville Delaware Bridge Company established in the 1830s and a companion Washington Crossing Bridge Company that was created in 1904 to raise additional capital for purposes of erecting the 1905 replacement bridge. The construction contract was for $24,500.
The bridge originally lacked a number of features it has today. It did not have a walkway. Its roadway deck was wooden and timber rails were the sole vehicular-collision-prevention measure along the trusses. The bridge’s steelwork went unpainted for its first three years of operation.
When it opened, the bridge’s vehicular traffic was predominantly animal-powered. Motor-powered vehicles were rarely seen luxuries for a privileged few. Mass production of automobiles affordable for the middle class did not begin until 1908 – a development that radically changed transportation and America itself over the next three decades.
The bridge was constructed on portions of piers and abutments that supported two prior covered-wooden bridges at the location. The first covered-wooden bridge opened January 1, 1835. It was partially or entirely destroyed – the accounts are unclear – in a major 1841 river flood.
According to New Jersey legislative records, the replacement wooden bridge opened by 1842 (actual date uncertain). Later published accounts suggest the post-1841-flood bridge was positioned three feet higher over the river than its short-lived predecessor. Despite the enhanced elevation, the second covered bridge was annihilated in the infamous Pumpkin Flood of October 1903 – the river’s second highest flood of record to this day.
Eight other private toll bridges were completely or partially washed away in the 1903 flood:
- Yardley-Wilburtha, wooden, completely destroyed.
- New Hope-Lambertville, wooden, completely destroyed.
- Lumberville-Raven Rock, wooden, one of five spans destroyed.
- Point Pleasant-Byram, steel, four of five spans destroyed.
- Uhlerstown-Frenchtown, wooden, two of six spans destroyed.
- Upper Black Eddy-Milford, wooden, one of three spans destroyed
- Riegelsville, wooden, completely destroyed.
- Riverton-Belvidere, wooden, completely destroyed.
The New Jersey Bridge Company constructed four of the full-replacement bridges. They were, in order of completion – Riverton-Belvidere (1904), Yardley-Wilburtha (1905), Washington Crossing (1905), and Point Pleasant-Byram (1905). Interestingly, all four of these replacement bridges had narrow roadway decks.
Narrowness Theories
Taylorsville Delaware Bridge Company meeting minutes on file at the Bucks County Historical Society’s Spruance Library in Doylestown, PA. fail to explain why the Washington Crossing Bridge was constructed with such a narrow road deck. A person can only theorize explanations.
One possibility is cost – the narrow design might have been all the private bridge company could have afforded at that time. Another possibility is the bridge company’s directors – several of whom were farmers – did not foresee a future dominated by motor-powered vehicles. They very well might have considered automobiles as a passing fad. “Get a horse!,” they might have shouted.
The final — and most logical — narrowness theory is that the bridge crossing’s four surviving stone-masonry piers from the 1830s could not have supported a wider structure. (Note: one of the crossing’s original piers was destroyed in the 1903 flood and had to be completely replaced – with poured concrete — before the steel replacement superstructure could be erected.)
Originally a private toll bridge
While the bridge went into service with corresponding toll collections on April 11, 1905, the new steel structure was not formally dedicated until May 6, 1905 – a Saturday event marked with music, speeches, and bunting. A toll schedule from the Trenton Public Library’s Trentoniana Room shows what the bridge’s toll rates were at the time.
The toll-rates table suggests the local economy was still predominantly agrarian based. A vehicle “drawn by beasts of burden” was 10 cents per head. A single horse or mule and rider was 10 cents. Cattle were three cents per head. Sheep or swine were two cents per head. A steam thresher or a steam engine was 10 cents per horse. A wheelbarrow cost four cents to cross.
While the bridge did not have a walkway, two-cent tolls were charged for a “foot passenger” and for each rider on a bicycle. And there were tolls for motor vehicles: 10 cents for a “light automobile,” 20 cents for a “heavy automobile,” and $1 for a “traction engine” or a steam roller.
Tolls applied for travel in either direction. Toll collections continued until April 25, 1922, when representatives of the two bridge companies signed hastily arranged agreements to sell the bridge to the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey for $40,000.
Former agency arranged public acquisition
The sale had been arranged by the former Joint Commission for Elimination of (Private) Toll Bridges – Pennsylvania-New Jersey – the predecessor agency to today’s Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC). To cover the agreed-upon $40,000 purchase price, half was to be paid by New Jersey and the other half by Pennsylvania.
The property closing was scheduled to take place in a room at the New Jersey State House in Trenton. But when all the parties arrived, two issues arose. The bridge owners couldn’t provide tax records for their toll collections and the state of Pennsylvania’s attorney discovered he had not been provided with the requisite $20,000 check to pay for the bridge’s purchase.
So, instead of exchanging titles, deeds, surveys and money, the closing became more of a conference on how to amicably address the muffed property closing. The result: a hastily arranged agreement to immediately stop toll collections at the bridge while providing time for the bridge owners to produce their tax records and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office to convey that state’s payment check. All parties agreed to seal up the bridge sale in two weeks.
Minimal repairs when privately owned
Records suggest the bridge’s former private owners made minimal repairs or improvements to the bridge while they owned it. It had scant incandescent lighting and no sidewalk. The Joint Commission’s chief engineer reported at a post-public-acquisition meeting that the bridge’s piers and abutments needed repairs and the bridge’s wooden roadway flooring needed to be replaced.
Meanwhile, the toll collector’s house on the New Jersey side did not have indoor plumbing. Joint Commission meeting minutes indicate that former toll collectors obtained water from the home of one the bridge company’s directors. More alarmingly, the toilet facilities at the toll collector’s house were described as an open privy that was “a menace to health.” For the record, the bridge’s last toll collector was named Theodore Scheetz.
Public ownership history
After completing their purchase of the former private toll bridge in the spring 1922, New Jersey and Pennsylvania annually paid the old Joint Commission equal tax-generated subsidies to operate and maintain the bridge. This arrangement continued to late December 1934, when the states disbanded the Joint Commission and established the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (“the Bridge Commission”) with an expanded mission of building new “superhighway” toll bridges. The new Bridge Commission then assumed the former Joint Commission’s responsibility of caring for the bridge with equal annual tax subsidies from the two states — which still held the deeds and titles to the bridge.
The two states’ joint ownership continued until July 1, 1987. On that date, the bridge’s ownership was conveyed outright to the Bridge Commission and the states ceased providing equal annual tax subsidies for the bridge’s operation and maintenance. Under changes the two states and the U.S. Congress made to the Bridge Commission’s Compact in 1987, the Commission now uses a share of revenues collected at its toll bridges to run the Washington Crossing Bridge and 11 other former privately owned bridge crossings the states purchased in the early 20th century.
This system-wide funding structure that the states and Congress prescribed in 1987 is the reason why the Bridge Commission refers to the Washington Crossing Bridge today as a “toll-supported” structure.
Improvements and changes
A variety of improvements and changes have been made to the bridge during its 100-plus years of public ownership.
A pedestrian walkway was added on the bridge’s downstream side in 1926. The bridge’s New Jersey approach was redesigned in 1947. In 1951, the bridge’s wood roadway flooring was removed and replaced with a steel open-grate driving surface – an improvement invented during the 1930s. The 1951 change to the bridge’s roadway surface enabled the structure’s curb-to-curb width to be increased to 15 feet.
1955 flood forced 3-month shutdown
The Delaware River’s record-setting flood of August 19, 1955 did considerable damage to the bridge. Floating debris in the form of whole trees, steel barrels and even houses smashed against the bridge. All six spans sustained damage. More than half of the bridge’s bottom steel chords were bent, torn, or twisted beyond points of being straightened. The bridge had to be shut down and was not reopened until necessary repairs were completed on November 17, 1955. The cost of repairs was covered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
After the flood, the Bridge Commission took note of the antiquated and traffic-challenged conditions of the limited-capacity late 19th century and early 20th bridges within its river jurisdiction. This included the Washington Crossing Bridge. The Bridge Commission’s 1955 annual report to the two states suggested replacement without using that precise word: “A new bridge, designed and built to unify historical sites on both shores of the river confronts the Commission.” In 1969, it was reported that the Commission was working with New Jersey and Pennsylvania transportation officials on a study to replace some of the aging bridges along the river, including Washington Crossing. The examination did not result in any actual bridge replacements, however.
The bridge underwent an extensive rehabilitation in 1994 that involved replacement of corroded steel members, installation of new wood sidewalk planks, and paving of the approaches. The truss was blast cleaned, metalized, and painted under that project, too. A more recent series of repairs and modifications were made to the bridge in a 2010 improvement project that necessitated an uninterrupted 46-day shutdown.
By the numbers
The bridge connects Washington Crossing-Pennington Road/County Route 546 in Hopewell Twp., N.J. with George Washington Memorial Boulevard/PA Route 532 in Upper Makefield, Twp., PA. NJ Route 29 and PA Route 32 are in close proximity to the bridge on each respective side.
The bridge is 876-feet 7-inches long. With a 15-foot width between wheel guards, it holds the distinction as the Commission’s narrowest vehicular crossing. The resulting 7.5-foot lane width is 4.5 feet less than the standard 12-foot-wide interstate highway lane.
The bridge has a measured vertical clearance of 14 feet, 1 inch, but is posted for 10 feet with either a gantry or headache bar at or near its portals. The posted speed limit is 15 MPH. A daily average of 6,600 vehicles crossed the bridge in 2024.. The bridge’s two highest traffic years were 2013 and 2016, when daily averages of 7,500 vehicles crossed.
The bridge superstructure consists of 277 tons of steel. A 3-foot-6-inch-wide wood-plank walkway is cantilevered outside the bridge’s downstream trusses.
Due to age, traffic usage, and other wear and tear, the bridge’s load rating was reduced to 3 tons in 1993 – a limit that remains in place to this day
A bridge monitor is posted on the bridge’s New Jersey side to thwart crossings of oversized vehicles. The bridge is one of the Commission’s only river crossings that is outfitted with traffic signals at each end to prevent crossings of oversized vehicles. In 2024, Bridge Commission security personnel turned away 1,711 oversized/overweight vehicles; State Police issued 13 summonses and 6 warnings to violators.
In accordance with National Bridge Inspections Standards, the bridge gets inspected every two years. Its most recent biennial inspection occurred last year, when the structure was determined to be in “overall fair condition” and “capable of safely supporting the posted load.”
Uncertain Future
The Commission has reached a juncture where it must decide how public funds would best be spent on the aging deficiency-riddled bridge. Last year, the Commission initiated a multi-year process – the Washington Crossing Bridge Alternatives Analysis – to develop and evaluate designated approaches that would help determine a future course of action for the bridge.
The process is being conducted in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, assessing the needs of users and stakeholders while considering potential impacts to environmental and cultural resources. Alternatives are expected to include no action, replacement, rehabilitation, and/or repurposing the current bridge.
Note: This account was researched and compiled by Deputy Executive Director Joe Donnelly. If anyone has verifiable corrections, documents, or additional information regarding this or any other DRJTBC bridge, please email him at jdonnelly@drjtbc.org.
About the Commission
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission was formed statutorily by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of New Jersey in 1934 and Congress ratified the arrangement under the Compact Clause of U.S. Constitution in August 1935. The agency operates eight toll bridges and 12 toll-supported bridges, two of which are pedestrian-only spans. The Commission is a self-supporting public-service agency that receives neither federal nor state tax dollars to finance its projects or operations. Funding for the operations, maintenance and upkeep of its bridges and related transportation facilities is solely derived from revenues collected at its toll bridges. The Commission’s jurisdiction extends along the Delaware River from the Philadelphia-Bucks County line north to the New Jersey/New York border. More than 133.6 million cars and trucks crossed Commission bridges in 2024. For more information, please go to: www.drjtbc.org.
