Benjamin Franklin Bridge
Great cities have great bridges. New York has the Brooklyn Bridge; Venice is a city of beautiful pontes crowned by the Bridge of Sighs. Think San Francisco and you think of the Golden Gate. In Philadelphia, our great span is named in honor of Benjamin Franklin.Plans to construct a bridge between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey on the other side of the Delaware river were made as early as 1818.
The bridge was designed by Paul Philippe Cret, the architect who was also in large part responsible for Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Driving over the bridge and passing under its two tall towers connected by tapering cables, puts one in mind of Dorothy entering into Kingdom of Oz — there is a fearful exhilaration. This bridge does not merely span the Delaware — it soars over the river. Painted a resonant blue, at some points the bridge seems to merge with the sky.
Initially the bridge had six car lanes, two tracks for a streetcar and two railway lines on the outside of the bridge’s deck trusses.
A streetcar was never put into service though. The car lanes were later widened and one was added, replacing the streetcar tracks. The railway tracks came into use in 1936.
In 1987 a computerized lighting system was added to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge as part of the celebration of the Bicentennial of the US Constitution. This makes the bridge a colorful spectacle at night.
