Calhoun Street
Toll-Supported Bridge

The current structure is the second bridge to be put into service at this location, which is near the site of an old ferry known as Beatty’s Ferry and the Kirkbride-Rutherford Ferry.

The first span at the site was called the City Bridge, a covered wooden structure constructed and operated by a private company — the Trenton City Bridge Company.  It opened as a tolled crossing on July 1, 1861 — less than three months after the start of the Civil War. It consisted of seven spans supported on stone masonry piers and abutments, all of which today support the current iron bridge.  The superstructure carried two roadways with flanking walkways on the uppstream and downstream sides.

It was the second wooden covered bridge to be constructed between Trenton and Morrisville. The first was the 1,008-foot-long Trenton Bridge, also sometimes called the Delaware River Bridge. Designed by pioneering bridge designer Theodore Burr, that bridge opened in January 30, 1806 at the location of the current Lower Trenton (“Trenton Makes”) Toll-Supported Bridge a half mile downstream. Burr’s bridge was the first to cross the Delaware River and was operated as a private toll bridge by the Trenton Delaware Bridge Company. Burr’s later was used to carry railroad traffic between the two states in addition to animal powered vehicles and pedestrians. Burr’s bridge was modified for rail traffic before coming under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1871. It apparently remained in service until 1876.

The Trenton Delaware Bridge Company opposed efforts to form a competeing Trenton City Delaware Bridge Company and that company’s subsequent efforts to build a second bridge at Trenton. A lawsuit was undertaken, but proved unsuccessful. A judge determined that while the Trenton Delaware Bridge Company’s New Jersey charter prohibited construction of a competing bridge within three miles in either direction along the river, its charter in Pennsylvania did not contain such a provision.

After opening less than half mile upstream of Burr’s Trenton Bridge, the upstart Trenton City Bridge lasted almost 23 years before being destroyed in a “spectacular fire” on the evening of June 25, 1884. The fire was believed to have been caused by a careless cigar smoker.

The Trenton City Bridge Company decided to replace the bridge soon after its destruction, opting to replace it with an iron truss structure built upon the exiting piers and abutments of the old bridge. The new bridge was constructed by 83 workmen in a short period of just 60 days under the guidance of the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville, Pa.  (The Phoenix Bridge Company was a subsidiary of the iron works that produced the internal iron used in the construction of the Washington Monument in our nation’s capital.)

The new iron bridge officially opened to traffic — again as a privately owned toll bridge — on October 20, 1884 with 16 horse vehicles, 7 one horse vehicles, and 175 pedestrians crossing the bridge that day, according to the Daily State Gasette. The Trenton City Bridge Company opted to call the new structure the Calhoun Street Bridge. The street was an offshoot of Calhoun Lane, where a local businessman — Alexander Calhoun — operated a store.

The Web site LivingPlaces.Com says the following about the bridge:  “The Phoenix Column bridges were among the last constructions of wrought iron, long the prime variety of iron used where great tensile strength and resistance to stress was required.  By the 1880s, open-hearth steel had come to replace wrought iron for most of these uses, and bridges from that time were constructed primarily of steel girders.”

The structure has undergone numerous repairs and rehabilitations over the past century.

“The Calhoun Street Bridge is the oldest roadway structure in continuous use between Pennsylvania and New Jersey and it played a significant role in the history of Trenton, Morrisville, and the surrounding region,” Frank G. McCartney, former executive director of the Commission, said on the bridge’s 125th anniversary. “The bridge has performed exceptionally over the years, although it does require regular repairs and a comprehensive rehabilitation.”

The bridge was last rehabilitated in 2010. The work included replacement of the superstructure’s floor system, repairs of the iron truss, painting of the superstructure, repairs to the substructure and approach roadways, and installation of improved roadway railings and sidewalk safety features.

The bridge was part of the original 3,389 mile-long Lincoln Highway – America’s first transcontinental roadway, which connected New York City with San Francisco. Conceived in 1912 and formally dedicated October 31, 1913, the Lincoln Highway holds the distinction as the first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, predating the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The bridge was included in the highway until 1920, when the route was changed to a non-toll bridge.

The bridge still has a sign referencing its Lincoln Highway past on its downstream side near the Pennsylvania abutment. The blue and yellow sign – believed to be made of iron – has the Lincoln Highway emblem and arrows pointing to New Jersey and Pennsylvania and New York and San Francisco.

The Calhoun Street Bridge is the second oldest vehicular bridge in continuous operation across the Delaware. The oldest bridge is John Roebling’s Lackawaxen Aqueduct between New York and Pennsylvania.

The bridge was purchased by the Commission’s predecessor agency — the Joint Commission for the Acquisition of Toll Bridges over the Delaware River between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of New Jersey (also known as the Joint Commission for Eliminating Toll Bridges) — on November 14, 1928, at which point tolls on the bridge were eliminated. The purchase price of the bridge was $250,000, roughly $3.1 million in 2008 dollars as adjusted for inflation. At the time of the purchase, a trolley line was operated over it by the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Traction Company. The line was eventually abandoned and the tracks removed as part of a reflooring rehabilitation in 1940.

The Calhoun Street Bridge is a seven-span wrought iron pin connected truss bridge containing 730 tons of iron and steel. A timber-plank pedestrian sidewalk is supported by the upriver truss on steel cantilever brackets.

“The bridge is well-appreciated by local residents for its beauty and historic significance,” the Web site LivingPlaces.com says.  “The significance of the Calhoun Street Bridge is that it is one of the few surviving long bridges of its type.  While it is shorter and slightly less impressive than the Walnut Street Bridge in Harrisburg, Pa., which it predates by six years, it is probably the longest Phoenix Bridge and is still open to traffic.”

The bridge was designated as the Delaware River crossing point for the 3,389 mile-long Lincoln Highway – America’s first transcontinental roadway — in 1914.

Originally, the Lincoln Highway cross the Delaware River by ferry between Camden, N.J. and Philadelphia, N.J. But when Camden officials and business community dallied in embracing the national roadway designation, Lincoln Highway backers changed the route through Trenton and across the Calhoun Street Bridge to Pennsylvania.

The Lincoln Highway was conceived by automobile enthusiasts in 1912 as an amalgamation of  various roadways between New York City and San Francisco. Formally dedicated October 31, 1913, the Lincoln Highway holds the distinction as the first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, predating the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Calhoun Street Bridge was included in the highway until a year or so after the “old iron bridge” at the former Trenton Bridge location was jointly purchased by Pennsylvania and New Jersey and freed of tolls in June 1918. The Lincoln Highway designation was moved to the so-called “Lower Trenton Bridge” because it was free to cross while the Calhoun Street Bridge, which now controlled by trolley operators, was still privately owned and tolled.

The Calhoun Street Bridge has signage referencing its Lincoln Highway past.

An original iron Lincoln Highway state-line marker is installed between the bridge’s PA. abutment and its bridge monitor shelter. This marker was found in storage off-site, restored, and installed around the time of the bridge’s last rehabilitation in 2010. The blue and yellow sign has the Lincoln Highway emblem and arrows pointing to New Jersey and Pennsylvania and New York and San Francisco.  Replica red-white-blue porceline-covered steel Lincoln Highway signs also are installed at both ends of the the bridge. These were placed in 2014, which was the current bridge’s 130th anniversary year.

The Calhoun Street Bridge is the oldest bridge currently in service between New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the second oldest vehicular bridge in continuous operation across the Delaware River. The oldest bridge is John Roebling’s Lackawaxen Aqueduct between New York and Pennsylvania.

The Calhoun Street Bridge was purchased from the former Trenton City Delaware Bridge Company by the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on November 14, 1928. The transaction, which cost $250,000, was arranged by the Commission’s predecessor agency, the former Joint Commission for Elimination of Toll Bridges — Pennsylvania-New Jersey. By the time of the bridge’s sale, the bridge company had been owned by a series of trolley operators. The last bridge company president was Gaylord Thompson. At the time of the sale, the bridge carried a trolley line operated by the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Traction Company. The line was eventually abandoned and the tracks removed as part of a reflooring rehabilitation in 1940.

The Calhoun Street Bridge is a seven-span wrought iron pin connected truss bridge containing 730 tons of iron and steel. A composite-wood pedestrian sidewalk is supported by the upriver truss with steel cantilever brackets.

“The bridge is well-appreciated by local residents for its beauty and historic significance,” the Web site LivingPlaces.com says.  “The significance of the Calhoun Street Bridge is that it is one of the few surviving long bridges of its type.  While it is shorter and slightly less impressive than the Walnut Street Bridge in Harrisburg, Pa., which it predates by six years, it is probably the longest Phoenix Bridge and is still open to traffic.”