Point Pleasant–Byram Bridge

Point Pleasant–Byram Bridge
Point Pleasant–Byram Bridge pier in November 2008
Coordinates40°25′26″N 75°03′42″W / 40.423899°N 75.061733°W / 40.423899; -75.061733
CrossesDelaware River
LocalePoint Pleasant, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Byram, Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Characteristics
DesignTruss bridge
History
Opened1855[1]
Rebuilt1892[2]
1903[3]
ClosedAugust 20, 1955
Location
Map

The Point Pleasant–Byram Bridge was a bridge that spanned the Delaware River between Point Pleasant, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the Byram section of Kingwood, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

History and notable features

This bridge was a four-span, steel structure that was built in 1903 after several previous predecessor bridges (built in 1855 as a wooden covered bridge[1] and in 1892 as a first steel structure[2]) were wiped away by weather-related incidents. Funded by a private company, it was a toll bridge until 1919, when the Pennsylvania–New Jersey Joint Bridge Commission bought it.[4]

One of the most modern on the river, the bridge was the first bought in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Flooding from Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane in 1955 wiped away the bridge once again, along with three others along the river. Unlike the Yardley–Wilburtha and Portland–Columbia Pedestrian Bridge, the Point Pleasant–Byram Bridge was never replaced and the piers remain in the Delaware River.[5]

Bibliography

  • Dale, Frank Talbot (2003). Bridges Over the Delaware River: A History of Crossings. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813532132.

References

  1. ^ a b Dale 2003, p. 52.
  2. ^ a b Dale 2003, p. 53.
  3. ^ Dale 2003, p. 53–54.
  4. ^ Dale, Frank T. Bridges Over the Delaware River: A History of Crossings, p. 54. Rutgers University Press, 2003. ISBN 9780813532134. Accessed July 8, 2016. "When, in 1919, owners of the financially stressed Point Pleasant-Byram Bridge offered their structure to the Joint Bridge Commission, they instantly struck a deal."
  5. ^ Dale 2003, p. 54–55.