Girard Point Bridge (Interstate 95 in Philadelphia)

The Girard Point Bridge is a component of Interstate 95 in the city of Philadelphia. The Girard Point Bridge is a double deck truss bridge which crosses the Schuylkill River. The Girard Point Bridge was completed during 1973 and serves an average of 148,500 vehicles a day.

Part 1; a brief history of the Girard Point Bridge

At the emergence of the Interstate Highway System traffic in the southern limits of Philadelphia utilized Pennsylvania Route 291 over the George C. Platt Bridge to cross the Schuylkill River. Construction of the new alignment of Interstate 95 on the Girard Point Bridge broke ground during 1968. The Girard Point Bridge would ultimately open to traffic during 1973 which provided a limited access highway into downtown Philadelphia. The double deck truss design of the Girard Point Bridge carries northbound Interstate 95 traffic on the lower decker and southbound traffic on the upper deck. The Girard Point Bridge is 5,167.2 feet long.

Part 2; a southbound drive over the Girard Point Bridge

The below sequence of photos depicts a crossing of the Girard Point Bridge along southbound Interstate 95 towards Exit 15.

Part 3; a northbound drive over the Girard Point Bridge

The below sequence of photos depicts a northbound drive along Interstate 95 on the lower deck of the Girard Point Bridge.

Comments

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park. As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park. Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870. The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona. In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers. The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines. The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917. Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...