Commodore Barry Bridge

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The Commodore Barry Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans the Delaware River from Chester, Pennsylvania to Bridgeport, New Jersey, USA. It is named after the American Revolutionary War hero and Philadelphia resident, John Barry.

Commodore Barry Bridge from the site of the old ferry terminal (Ferry Rd) in Bridgeport, NJ

Construction of the bridge began on April 14, 1969, and it opened to traffic on February 1, 1974. It has a total length of 13,912 feet (4,240 meters), and a main span of 1,644 feet (501 meters). The road has a total of five lanes, divided by a zipper barrier, in which a machine can configure the number of lanes in each direction, depending upon traffic volume or construction. The bridge is designated as part of U.S. Highway 322 and has direct connections with U.S. Highway 13 and Interstate 95 in Chester and U.S. Highway 130 in Bridgeport. It replaced an earlier ferry service which ceased operation on January 31, 1974.

Originally created to be a connection to one of the then-proposed freeways in New Jersey, the Commodore Barry Bridge was to connect I-95 near Chester to, at one point, the Atlantic City Expressway near Hammonton, New Jersey, but those plans were eventually scrapped when it was realized that many people in the college-town of Glassboro, New Jersey would be affected. There are new talks, however, of possibly upgrading US 322 to a freeway from US 130 to Interstate 295's current Exit 11, or even as far as the New Jersey Turnpike's Exit 2. There is no mention if this new freeway would be included in the Interstate Highway System, though it hasn't been ruled out yet, either.

Along with the Betsy Ross Bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge, the Commodore Barry Bridge is one of the four toll bridges connecting the metro Philadelphia region with southern New Jersey owned by the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA). Both the DRPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are in the process of building two new exit ramps that will allow motorists to access the Chester Waterfront (via Pennsylvania State Route 291) from I-95.

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