Photographs of the Bridges
Central Delaware River Bridges, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
The segment of the Delaware River forming the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey between the Delaware Water Gap on the north and New Hope on the south is about 60 miles long. Although most east-west traffic crosses this stretch of river on a few unattractive, high-speed interstate highway bridges, the segment also includes nine smaller historic bridges connecting villages on either side of the river, some of them of unusual and/or decorative design. From north to south, the historic bridges are the Columbia-Portland Pedestrian Bridge (1958), Belvidere-Riverton (1928), Northampton Street (1896), Riegelsville (1904), Milford-Black Eddy (1933), Uhlerstown-Frenchtown (1931), the Lumberville-Raven Rock Pedestrian Bridge (1946), Centre Bridge at Stockton (1927), and the bridge connecting New Hope with Lambertville in New Jersey (1904, reconstructed in 1955).
All of the bridge locations on the Delaware River have an extensive history. Most began in the early 1800s as ferry crossings, and were then developed as privately owned and chartered wooden covered bridges by the mid-1800s. The river was subjected to periodic floods and freshets, meaning most of the current bridges are the fourth or fifth generation of bridge at the location. The last of the wooden covered bridges, at Columbia-Portland, was destroyed in the flood of 1955, and was replaced by the current pedestrian-only concrete bridge. As the bridges were destroyed and rebuilt, they were slowly purchased by the state governments, and are now all owned by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC). This common ownership of the bridges since the 1920s has resulted in a commonality of appearance. All of the walkable bridges owned and operated by the DRJTBC have been rehabilitated within the past 20 years. In addition to structural rehabilitation, each bridge has had a pedestrian sidewalk with decorative black railings installed and each is freshly painted the same appealing shade of dark green. All of them are clean and in impeccably maintained condition.
Five of these bridges – those at Belvidere-Riverton, Milford-Black Eddy, Uhlerstown-Frenchtown, Centre Bridge at Stockton, and New Hope-Lambertville - are very similar in construction type and appearance. They are all steel through-truss bridges, with a common appearance consisting of a string of trapezoidal-shaped trusses painted dark green, pedestrian-friendly sidewalk with railings painted black, and a yellow guardhouse for a security guard at one end.
The bridges all connect downtown areas of small, historic riverside villages featuring parks, canal towpath trails, or historic inns. Each town draws some level of tourist interest for day-trips or weekend getaways for the urban populations of Philadelphia, Trenton, and New Jersey. New Hope in Bucks County, and Lambertville, a short walk across the bridge to the New Jersey side of the river, are probably the best known for their antique shops and art galleries, but the other towns also have historic attractions clustered around the ends of the bridge.
I have written a detailed discussion of the bridges of the upper Delaware River, including a recommended tour, in Chapter 9 of my book, Bridgespotting Part 2: A Guide to Even More Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times.
