Benjamin Franklin Bridge

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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The Benjamin Franklin Bridge as seen from Penn Treaty Park
Photo: Robert J. Moran Copyright: All Rights Reserved

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The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey.
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Landmark Trivia

  • At its completion on July 1, 1926, its 533-metre span made it the world's longest suspension bridge span, a distinction it would hold until the opening of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit in 1929.
  • Pedestrian walkways run along both sides of the bridge, elevated over and separated from the vehicular lanes; of these, only one is open at a time.
  • The bridge currently carries highways I-676 and US 30. The bridge also carries the PATCO Speedline rail line via connecting tunnels on both sides of the bridge.
  • The bridge is owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority.
  • The bridge's two stone anchoring houses each contain a "phantom railway station". The stations were built for a planned trolley line that was to run over the bridge. The two sides, it turns out, used different grades of track, and could not meet up in the center. As it happened, the then-"Bridge Line" (the subway line that ran as far as the Broadway stop in Camden, NJ and was later incorporated into the PATCO line in 1969) served the cross-bridge traffic adequately, and the trolley line has never been finished, but the stations were, right down to tile decorations on the walls and floors.

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