Betsy Ross Bridge

Delaware Highway Bridge

The Betsy Ross Bridge is a continuous steel truss bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and to Pennsauken, New Jersey. It opened in 1976, and currently carries more than 9 million vehicles across the Delaware every year. The Betsy Ross Bridge, also known as the Ross Memorial Bridge, is a continuous steel truss bridge spanning the Delaware River from the City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey. It was built from 1969 to 1974, and opened in April 1976, during the American Bicentennial Year.

The bridge was originally planned to be named as the "Delair Bridge", after a paralleling vertical lift bridge owned by Pennsylvania Railroad (which is now used by Conrail and New Jersey Transit’s Atlantic City Line), but was instead later named for Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress and reputed creator of the first American flag in 1776, making it the first automotive bridge named for a woman in America and the second bridge overall (after Iowa’s Boone High Bridge was renamed the Kate Shelley High Bridge in 1912). The bridge is adjacent to the mouth of Frankford Creek.

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Betsy Ross Bridge

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