Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge

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Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge
Looking west over the Susquehanna River
Official name	Veterans Memorial Bridge
Carries	2 lanes of PA 462
Crosses	Susquehanna River
Locale	Wrightsville, Pennsylvania and Columbia, Pennsylvania
Maintained by	PennDOT
ID number	360462001000000
Design	concrete deck arch bridge
Longest span	56.4 m (185 ft)
Total length	2029.1 m (6657.2 ft)
Width	14.6 m (47.9 ft)
AADT	10,350 (2004)
Opening date	September 30, 1930
Toll	was $.25 for cars when opened; toll no longer collected
Coordinates	40.029° N 76.517° W

The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, officially the Veterans Memorial Bridge, and once called the Lancaster-York Intercounty Bridge, is a reinforced concrete arch bridge that spans the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. The Wiley-Maxon Construction Company began building the bridge in 1929 and finished construction in 1930. The bridge was designed by James B. Long and is approximately 5,183 feet (1,580 m) long. It is believed to be the longest concrete arch bridge in the world. The bridge is designated State Route 462 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is also a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

It was constructed to replace the automobile traffic of an adjacent older steel bridge, immediately north of the Veterans Memorial Bridge. This earlier bridge jointly carried the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a two-lane roadway for cars. In the early 1960s, the railroad bridge was torn down. Its stone abutments date to even earlier wooden covered bridges, one of which was destroyed by Union militia during the American Civil War to prevent its usage by elements of the Army of Northern Virginia. These earlier structures also went by the name Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge.

York and Lancaster counties paid $3 million to construct the bridge, financed by public bonds. The toll charge was eliminated on Jan. 31, 1943, when the bond issue was retired.

[edit] See also

List of crossings of the Susquehanna River

[edit] References

Jackson, Donald C. (1984). Great American Bridges and Dams. John Wiley & Sons, New York (USA). ISBN 0-471-14385-5.
Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge. ASCE History and Heritage of Civil Engineering. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.