Unlike other toll agencies in the United States, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is required under its enabling legislation – a Compact approved by the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and then affirmed by the U.S. Congress – to operate both toll bridges and non-toll bridges. The Commission refers to the non-tolled crossings as toll-supported bridges because while they are free for qualified vehicles to cross, the costs of operating, maintaining and policing these spans are paid from a share of the proceeds collected at the Commission’s toll bridges. Hence, toll-supported.

We do not use the word free in the bridge titles because that would be inaccurate; toll payers are supporting these older, often-weight-restricted bridges. (By the way, until the early 20th century, all of these current-day toll-supported river crossings were privately owned toll bridges. Two of them are now pedestrian-only crossings.)

The Commission’s bridge system currently consists of the following:

  • Eight toll bridges where tolls are collected from motorists traveling in the Pennsylvania-bound direction.
  • Twelve toll-supported bridges where users are not charged for crossing in either direction. (By the way, until the early 20th century, all of these current-day toll-supported river crossings were privately owned toll bridges. Two of them are now pedestrian-only crossings.)

There’s a brief explanation of the evolvement of the Commission’s outright ownership of the toll-supported river crossings on the About the Commission webpage, which also includes a short video about the Commission: Here’s an excerpt from the page:

The Commission operates pursuant to a Joint Agreement enacted by the two jurisdictional states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania in December 1934. The Agreement forms the basis of the agency’s federal Compact, first authorized by the United States Congress in 1935 (“Compact”).

A major change to the bi-state compact came in 1987 when it was changed to reflect modifications the two states made to the their Joint Agreement in 1984 and 1985 – assigning the Commission with assuming full financial responsibility for the non-toll bridges within its jurisdiction. The Commission subsequently was assigned ownership of the former state-owned, non-toll Delaware River crossings effective July 1, 1987. Prior to that time, the costs of operating and maintaining the non-toll bridges in the Commission’s jurisdiction were financed by equal-sized annual appropriations from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of New Jersey. Prior to the 1987 Compact change, the Commission referred to these non-toll crossings as tax-supported bridges. Since toll revenues currently are its sole source of financial support, the Commission now refers to these bridges as toll-supported bridges.