Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission

New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge's Open-Road Tolling Facility on Track to Open June 22

NEW HOPE, PA. – The New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge’s newly installed open-road cashless all-electronic tolling (AET) gantry is expected to begin handling highway-speed toll transaction sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, June 22*, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced today (June 15).

Testing and calibrating of the facility’s cameras, LED vehicle illuminators, and E-ZPass toll reading equipment ended recently. A Commission contractor is now in the process of completing other tasks that will enable live traffic to pass through the modernized tolling point. The new facility replaces a former canopy-covered cash-collection lane established with the bridge’s 1971 opening and later modified for southbound-only toll collections and E-ZPass service in late 2002.

Southbound and northbound Route 202 motorists will experience a series of traffic shifts and other changes once the overhead toll gantry comes online:

· The open-road tolling gantry will initially only handle one lane of southbound traffic for several weeks; the second lane beneath the gantry is expected to open sometime in July.
· All southbound traffic will be shifted to a standard 12-foot-wide highway travel lane on the toll bridge’s upstream side.
· The current 10-foot-wide southbound traffic width restriction will be eliminated.
· Northbound motorists will encounter a slight shift to the downstream side in the vicinity of the tolling area.
· The 11-foot-wide northbound travel restriction will remain in effect through the project area.
· Northbound vehicles will continue to be restricted to the current travel lane on the toll bridge downstream side.
· Motorists will continue to experience speed restrictions in both directions as work activities shift to a barricaded central section of the toll bridge and its Pennsylvania highway approach.

A transitional construction phase will begin after the new traffic patterns get established. This work will involve removal of the old cash-collection toll plaza’s remaining canopy-covered lane and the installation of a new permanent reinforced concrete center-median divider through the toll area. Barring unanticipated delays, this project phase is expected to end by mid-August.

Following completion of this transitional phase, work will focus on reconstructing the northbound (New Jersey-bound) travel lanes to produce a straightened alignment with the bridge and completing replacement of the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment. A series of traffic shifts will be instituted to carry out these final project stages. More information will be provided at a later date.

The toll gantry er****on marks the first time the Commission is fully converting one of its former cash-collection tolling points to an open-road AET facility. The facility will assess tolls through E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE license plate billing.

The work is one facet of a roughly 22-month-long project that also includes demolition of the bridge’s former cash-collection toll plaza, repairs and improvements to the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment, and realignment and reconstruction of the Route 202 road surface on the Pennsylvania side of the bridge.

To carry out the project, the bridge has been reduced to single travel lanes in each direction since last summer. All construction is expected to end during the first half of 2027. By that time, the bridge and its approaches will return to two lanes in each direction. Any remaining project-related speed and size restrictions would then expire.

*Note – The scheduled time and date for the start of the open-road tolling (ORT) service is subject to change due to weather, emergencies, and other factors.

New Jersey 101.5 FM daytime talk-show co-host Eric "E.J." Johnson recently posted a tightly written and enthusisastic article about the Commission's Scudder Falls (I-295) Toll Bridge corridor. Mr. Johnson describes the dual-span bridge and NJ approach road segment as "what a road is supposed to feel like." He summarizes the sad condition of the prior bridge and the massive project the Commission conducted between 2017 and 2022 to transform what had been a decades-long commuter's nightmare. We might be wrong about this, but its appears Mr. Johnson's research included material from various Commission annual report articles about the project. We're posting the link to EJ's article and photographs. (Note: As a matter of accuracy and fairness, the 2017-22 project addressed only about two miles of the six-mile New Jersey road segment before the bridge. Credit for the other four miles goes to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. So, kudos to the NJDOT, too.)

Every time I drive this road I think — why can't all of New Jersey feel like this Driving on Route 295 to the Scudder Falls Bridge is a refreshing experience, thanks to thoughtful design and major investment in infrastructure that enhances safety and comfort.

Vehicular Test Runs Have Ended at the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge's Recently Outfitted Open-Road All-Electronic Tolling Gantry -- The new highway-speed toll assessment facility remains on track to open to southbound (Pennsylvania-bound) traffic later in June - date to be determined. When it opens, it will mark the first time the Commission has converted one of its seven former cash-collection tolling points to a fully open-road facility.

The resurfacing project on the Scudder Falls Toll Bridge's walkway is being extended to a five-day Monday-to-Friday work schedule until further notice. The new schedule begins this week -- Friday, May 8. More information is available in a press release posted on the Commission's website at: https://www.drjtbc.org/2026/05/scudder-falls-toll-bridge-bike-ped-path-closures-expanding-to-monday-friday-schedule/

Four-Hour Vehicular Traffic Closure at Washington Crossing Bridge Tuesday, Apr. 21

The Washington Crossing Toll-Supported Bridge motor-vehicle lanes are scheduled to be closed 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Apr. 21.

The temporary lanes closures will enable Commission maintenance forces to execute a series of tasks at the narrow, aging bridge:

• Reseat a loose steel-grate roadway section on the bridge’s Pennsylvania side;
• Repaint the bridge’s centerline; and
• Patch and recoat the bridge’s New Jersey approach roadway surface.

The two closest river bridges are the Scudder Falls (I-295) Toll Bridge 2.5 miles to the south, and the New Hope-Lambertville Toll-Supported Bridge 6.9 miles to the north.

Note: The bridge walkway will remain open.

Webpage Established for Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge’s Architectural Lighting System

FRENCHTOWN, N.J. -- The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) has established a specific webpage for the programmable color-changing LED architectural lighting system on the agency’s Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Toll-Supported Bridge.

The webpage’s address is: https://www.drjtbc.org/bridge-info/frenchtownbridgelights. It contains a basic overview about the lighting system and the bridge, the Commission’s policy for requesting lighting shows, requirements for making lighting requests, and an online lighting request form that organizations may use to request lighting displays.

Other information includes the annual schedule of pre-programmed lighting displays, a list of the bridge lighting system’s major components, and the attributes of the LED lighting system.

The Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge is the third Commission river crossing to be outfitted with LED lights for purposes of highlighting the structure’s unique profile along the river. The other bridges with architectural lights are the Northampton Street Toll-Supported Bridge (colloquially referred to as the Easton-Phillipsburg “free bridge”) -- https://www.drjtbc.org/bridge-info/northampton-street-bridge-lighting -- and the New Hope-Lambertville Toll-Supported Bridge -- https://www.drjtbc.org/bridge-info/newhopelambertvillelights.

(Note: The Commission’s Lower Trenton Toll-Supported Bridge also has LED display lighting, but that system is confined to the famous illuminated “Trenton Makes The World Takes” sign attached to two of the bridge’s five spans.)

The Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge was outfitted with a color-programmable architectural lighting system as part of an extensive rehabilitation project that was executed throughout last year and into early this year. Work crews currently are removing the temporary platform below the bridge’s roadway deck, a process that is expected to end by mid-April.

Organizations interested in requesting special lighting displays should file at least 30 days in advance. Special programs run from 30 minutes before sunset until 11 p.m., at which point the bridge lights switch to a white default setting until dawn.

The bridge lighting system will not be adjusted for personal events, birthdays, anniversaries, or other personal occasions. All requested temporary adjustments to the lighting system must conform with the Commission standards of appropriateness and good taste. Lighting and animation decisions are at the DRJTBC’s sole discretion.

Special displays scheduled for April at the four Commission bridges with some degree of color-programmable lighting are:
• April 1: First night of Passover – red and white
• April 2: Autism Awareness - blue
• April 5: Easter - purple
• April 6: Okur-Chung neurodevelopmental syndrome – green and blue
• April 7: Sexual Violence Awareness – teal
• April 9: Last night of Passover – red and white
• April 10: Donate Life (organ donation) – green and blue
• April 11: Parkinson’s Awareness – blue
• April 19: Crime Victims’ Rights – blue
• April 29: Denim Day for Sexual Violence survivors – teal

NOTICE- WALKERS & BICYCLISTS
The Scudder Falls Toll Bridge's shared-use path (walkway) is scheduled to be shut down Mondays through Thursdays starting March 23. Access will be blocked at the Delaware & Raritan Feeder Canal rail trail in New Jersey and the Delaware Canal towpath in Pennsylvania. Alternative crossing points are the Calhoun Street Bridge 4.8 miles to the south (downriver) and the Washington Crossing Bridge 2.5 miles to the north (upriver). Please spread the word. The weekly shutdown periods are expected to continue to at least late May.

The Open House events will allow motorists, pedestrians, business owners, residents, and other community members to stop in, learn about the WCBAA directly from the project team, ask questions, and provide comments on the future of Washington Crossing Bridge. There will be no formal presentation, and attendees may arrive at any time during the listed hours.

Learn more about the study at: www.washingtoncrossingbridge.com

Watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRu1u1ZaVyw

HAPPY 220th BIRTHDAY, BRIDGE CROSSING: First Delaware River Bridge Opened at Trenton January 30, 1806

Abutments and Piers Continue to Support Portion of Current-Day Lower Trenton ('Trenton Makes') Toll-Supported Bridge

TRENTON, N.J. – One of the most heralded works of early-19th century infrastructure – Theodore Burr’s masterpiece covered wooden bridge at Trenton – opened 220 years ago today. It was the first bridge to open across the Delaware River.

The groundbreaking bridge design was heralded as a “nine-day wonder” because people came from near and far to see it during its roughly 70 years of service. Among individuals who came to see the structure were Abraham Lincoln, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

William B. Wilson in his 1895 book, History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, described the bridge thusly: “The original bridge, at its completion, was regarded on both sides of the Atlantic as a marvel in bridge architecture, and, in that sense, the finest in the world.”

The bridge was constructed for the long-defunct Trenton Delaware Bridge Company, which was legislatively authorized to be established by New Jersey on March 3, 1798. The legislative measure stated that a “good and permanent bridge across the river Delaware … would greatly contribute to facilitate the in*******se between this State and the Southern States.” Pennsylvania passed corresponding legislation to form the bridge company on April 4, 1798.

The legislation designated six individuals to subscribe stockholders for the envisioned company: John Beatty, Peter Gordon, and Aaron Howell of Trenton and Phillip Wagner, James C. Fisher, and Charles Biddle of Philadelphia. Sufficient stock shares were sold to incorporate the company with a president and board of managers on August 16, 1803. A contract to build a bridge subsequently was entered into with Theodor Burr of Oxford, N.Y., who was one of America’s pioneer bridge designers. His namesake “Burr arch-truss” design was patented in 1817 and he claimed to have designed 45 bridges before he died penniless in 1822. He is believed to be buried in a Pennsylvania potters’ field near the Susquehanna River.

Huge laminated wooden arches were a hallmark element of Burr’s bridge at Trenton, but the structure had many other unique features: open sides, dual cartways, a floor suspended by iron rods from the wooden arches, rooves that ran both perpendicular and parallel to the cartways, breakwater-enhanced masonry piers founded on bedrock, and ornate portals at each end of the bridge. Drawings suggest the bridge was outfitted with one or more lightning rods – an invention of Benjamin Franklin 50 years earlier.

Bridge construction began in 1804. The cost of er****on was $180,000, a staggering sum for its day. Costly as it was, stockholders were rewarded with dividends within a few years of the bridge’s completion.

A History of Trenton, published by the Trenton Historical Society in 1929, says the completed bridge was 1,008-feet long between its New Jersey abutment in Trenton and its Pennsylvania abutment on what was then called Delaware Works Island in Morrisville, PA. The bridge was 36-feet wide and it had walkways on both its upstream and downstream sides, with four-foot-high balustrades installed at the adjoining cartways to protect pedestrians from animal-powered vehicles and livestock of that age. Each roof on the bridge was covered with cedar shingles.

The bridge’s opening was marked with a huge gala. The February 2, 1806 edition of the Trenton-based True American newspaper stated that a field piece stationed on each side of the river commenced firing a national salute of 17 guns each and continued firing while a procession of dignitaries passed over the newly opened bridge.

Tolls were charged to all vehicles, livestock, and pedestrians crossing the bridge. Among the toll rates the private bridge company was allowed to collect – in each direction — were:

75 cents – pleasure carriage drawn by four horses;
50 cents – pleasure carriage drawn by two horses;
62-1/2 cents – stage coach drawn by four horses;
37-1/2 cents – stage coach drawn by two horses;
62-1/2 cents – loaded wagon drawn by four horses;
50 cents – empty wagon drawn by four horses;
37-1/2 cents – wagon drawn by two horses;
37-1/2 cents – carriage drawn by two horses;
25 cents – carriage drawn by one horse;
25 cents – sleighs and sleds;
12-1/2 cents – single horse and rider (same for every led horse);
3 cents – pedestrian;
6 cents – every head of mules or horned cattle;
1 cent – every sheep or swine.
The bridge held some notable distinctions in its lifetime:

As previously noted, first bridge completed across the Delaware River;
Second covered bridge in the United States (first was across the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia);
First to connect two states;
First to carry interstate railroad traffic.
New Jersey’s powerful railroad and canal interests (notably the monopolistic Joint Companies) acquired controlling stock ownership of the Trenton Delaware Bridge Company in the mid-1830s as part of a successful effort to block a potentially competing railroad connection between Philadelphia and New York City. It’s believed, or at least estimated, that the bridge was outfitted with railroad tracks in 1839 to carry a horse-drawn rail car in either direction along the bridge’s upstream cartway to connect the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad terminus in Morrisville and the Camden & Amboy Railroad station in Trenton. A wire-pulled bell at each end of the bridge activated by toll collectors controlled conflicting travel movements on this half of the bridge. This system proved cumbersome and inconvenient.

In 1848, the bridge’s downstream walkway was eliminated. This allowed the bridge’s downstream half to then carry two parallel tracks (one in each direction). The arches on the bridge’s southern side were strengthened with additional arches and supports as part of this process. This allowed the bridge’s upstream cartway to return to strictly non-railroad use, apparently with a more controllable alternating travel system.

In the 1860s, a spark from a passing locomotive ignited a fire on the first span from the New Jersey side and the bridge’s entire shingled roof was removed.

By 1868, the railroad-controlled bridge company realized Burr’s wooden bridge would need to be replaced. Application was made to the two states for legislation that would allow for extension of the bridge’s piers and abutments to the downstream side. Nothing appears to have been done until 1874, when a decision was made to replace the aging wooden bridge with two parallel iron truss structures. By this time, the Trenton Delaware Bridge Company and its bridge were controlled by the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad. The PRR had taken control of both the Camden & Amboy and Philadelphia and Trenton railroads through a 999-year lease in 1871.

The additions to piers and abutments to allow for an iron bridge with two tracks was completed in July 1874. Work on the iron rail bridge was started in December 1874 and completed in August 1875. A History of Trenton provides an account of the ensuing progression that suggests all non-rail vehicular travel ceased at the location for approximately a year:

“The wagon ways of the old bridge were closed in December (1875) and the slow work in dismantling the rotten and rusted bridge began. The piers and abutments were then raised four feet and the iron bridge moved to its permanent site, 18 feet north of where it had been built. This was done by early 1876.”

Apparently, a footwalk was maintained on the downstream side of the bridge during this process. Meanwhile, wagons had to use the covered wooden Trenton City Bridge nine-tenths of a mile upstream until a second iron bridge dedicated for vehicular and pedestrian traffic could be erected immediately upstream of the newly installed iron rail bridge. The second iron bridge was completed in 1876 atop the remaining upstream portion of the piers and abutments that once supported Burr’s landmark former wooden bridge.

Postmortem

The piers and abutments at what were now called Lower Trenton were further widened to the downstream side for the er****on of a two-track steel-truss rail bridge in 1892. This resulted in the location having an 1876 two-lane vehicular bridge with an attached pedestrian walkway on the upstream side, an 1875 iron-truss two-track rail bridge in the center, and the 1892 two-track rail bridge on the downstream side. The center iron structure carried trains in the southbound direction and the downstream steel structure carried trains in the northbound direction.

In 1898, the center iron rail bridge was removed and replaced with a two-track steel truss structure. This resulted in the configuration of an 1876 two-lane vehicular bridge with an attached pedestrian walkway on the upstream side, an 1898 steel-truss two-track rail bridge in the center, and an 1892 two-track rail bridge on the downstream side. The center steel structure carried trains in the southbound direction and the downstream steel structure carried trains in the northbound direction.

The crossing remained with three superstructures until 1903, when the Pennsylvania Railroad opened a four-track stone arch bridge slightly downstream. Lower Trenton’s two steel railroad bridges were dismantled in 1904 and shipped south to the Potomac River, where they were used as continuous spans for the Long Bridge completed in 1905 near Washington, D.C. The former Lower Trenton steel bridge’s spans subsequently remained in service for about 40 more years.

The 1876 “old iron bridge” back at Lower Trenton continued to carry motor vehicles and pedestrians until early 1929. The states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey jointly purchased the aging bridge from the Pennsylvania Railroad-controlled Trenton Delaware Bridge Company on May 31, 1918 and immediately freed it of tolls. The purchase was facilitated by the former Joint Commission for Elimination of Toll Bridges – Pennsylvania-New Jersey, the predecessor agency to the current-day Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

Using equal shares of tax subsidies provided by the two states, the former Joint Commission designed and oversaw construction of the steel truss vehicular/pedestrian bridge that stands at the Lower Trenton location to this day. The bridge was opened partially to traffic around Thanksgiving 1928 and was completed and fully opened to traffic in both directions in January 1929. This structure largely rests on piers and abutments that were constructed for the prior rail bridges erected between 1874 and 1898, The large portions of the piers and abutments that once carried the first wooden bridge and the 1876 iron vehicular/pedestrian bridge were capped with concrete and remain in that state to this day, the last remaining vestige of Burr’s groundbreaking 1806 wooden bridge across the Delaware.

More reading

The earliest and best drawing of the first bridge across the Delaware River at Trenton was by William Constable – September 10, 1807, and is in the Graphic Arts Collection of Special Collection, Firestone Library, Princeton University: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/04/02/bridge-on-the-delaware-at-trenton-new-jersey/

The best single article about the bridge probably is Trenton Bridge: Frist Bridge across the Delaware River, written by Frank Griggs, Jr., PE, and appearing in Structure, March 2014: https://www.structuremag.org/article/trenton-bridge-first-bridge-across-the-delaware-river/.

Image in the masthead of this press release is a woodcut engraving that appeared in Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey, 1844, by John W. Barber & Henry Howe.

https://youtu.be/KRu1u1ZaVyw