Edison Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°30′32″N74°18′02″W / 40.50889°N 74.30056°W |
Carries | 6 lanes of US 9 |
Crosses | Raritan River |
Locale | Woodbridge, New Jersey and Sayreville, New Jersey |
Official name | Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Bridge |
Other name(s) | Ellis S. Vieser Memorial Bridge |
Maintained by | NJDOT |
Characteristics | |
Design | Girder |
Total length | 4,391 feet (1,338 m) |
No. of spans | 29 |
History | |
Construction start | September 26, 1938 |
Opened | October 11, 1940 |
Inaugurated | December 14, 1940 |
Location | |
The Edison Bridge (officially the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Bridge) and the Vieser bridge (officially the Ellis S. Vieser Memorial Bridge) are a pair of bridges that carry U.S. Route 9 in the state of New Jersey, spanning the Raritan River near its mouth in Raritan Bay. The bridge, which connects Woodbridge on the north with Sayreville on the south, was opened to weekend traffic starting on October 11, 1940, and was opened permanently on November 15, 1940. [1] As of 2003, the bridge carries more than 82,000 vehicles daily and is owned and operated by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. It also runs directly parallel to the Driscoll Bridge, which carries the Garden State Parkway.
The design of the Edison Bridge was the direct responsibility of Morris Goodkind, chief engineer of the bridge division of the New Jersey State Highway Department, a position he had held since 1925.
The bridge is named for Thomas Edison. Construction on the bridge was started on September 26, 1938. The Edison Bridge was officially dedicated on December 14, 1940, with the ribbon cut by Mrs. Mina Edison Hughes, widow of the inventor. Also participating in the ceremonies were New Jersey Governor A. Harry Moore, and then Governor-elect Charles Edison, son of the inventor, along with the bridge's designer, Morris Goodkind. [1]
The final design called for a bridge with 29 spans and an overall length of 4,391 feet (1,338 m). The nine spans over the river would consist of three continuous span girders of record-setting proportions. The main girder over the navigation channel would be 650 feet (200 m) in length, consisting of a 250-foot (76 m) span flanked by two 200-foot (61 m) spans, and would set a new U.S. record for length. The two other continuous girders were each 600 feet (180 m) in length, consisting of three 200-foot (61 m) spans.
The final cost of the bridge was $4,696,000. More than 65,000 cubic yards (50,000 m3) of masonry, 50 percent buried from sight, went into the foundations, piers, and deck of the bridge. Over 2,500,000 pounds (1,133.98 metric tons) of reinforcing steel and 19,000,000 pounds (8,618.26 metric tons) of structural steel were used.
As part of a $48 million construction project, a major overhaul of the aging sixty-year-old bridge was undertaken, to address issues relating to the advanced age of the structure and to bring it up to the latest highway standards. The rehabilitated northbound span of the bridge was opened on to traffic on October 21, 2003, and marked the long-awaited conversion of the old Edison Bridge from a one-span, 4-lane structure with no shoulders to a two-span bridge with a total of six lanes with shoulders. [2]
On November 19, 2001, the southbound span was officially renamed "The Ellis S. Vieser Memorial Bridge" in a bill sponsored by Senator Joseph Kyrillos. [3]
Sayreville is a borough in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Sayreville is within the heart of the Raritan Valley region, located on the south banks of the Raritan River, and also located on the Raritan Bay. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 45,345, an increase of 2,641 (+6.2%) from the 2010 census count of 42,704, which in turn reflected an increase of 2,327 (+5.8%) from the 40,377 counted in the 2000 census.
The Raritan River is a major river of New Jersey. Its watershed drains much of the mountainous area of the central part of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean.
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The Governor Alfred E. Driscoll Bridge, is a bridge on the Garden State Parkway in the U.S. state of New Jersey, spanning the Raritan River near its mouth in Raritan Bay. The bridge connects the Middlesex County communities of Woodbridge Township on the north with Sayreville on the south. With a total of 15 travel lanes and 6 shoulder lanes, it is one of the world's widest and busiest motor vehicle bridges. Only 30 feet east of the Driscoll Bridge is the Edison Bridge, which carries U.S. Route 9. The bridge offers views of some of the taller buildings in the Lower Manhattan skyline, the New Brunswick skyline, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing.
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The Victory Bridge is a highway bridge in the U.S. state of New Jersey that carries Route 35 over the Raritan River, connecting the Middlesex County communities of Perth Amboy on the north and Sayreville to the south. The bridge is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT).
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U.S. Route 9 (US 9) is a United States Numbered Highway in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, running from Laurel, Delaware, to Champlain, New York. In New Jersey, the route runs 166.80 miles (268.44 km) from the Cape May–Lewes Ferry terminal in North Cape May, Cape May County, where the ferry carries US 9 across the Delaware Bay to Lewes, Delaware, north to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, Bergen County, where the route along with Interstate 95 (I-95) and US 1 continue into New York City. US 9 is the longest U.S. Highway in the state.
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The Basilone Memorial Bridge is a bridge on the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95) in the U.S. state of New Jersey spanning the Raritan River. The bridge connects Edison on the north with New Brunswick on the south.
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Morris Goodkind was chief bridge engineer for the New Jersey State Highway Department from 1925 to 1955, and was responsible for the construction of numerous bridges during that period. Goodkind emphasized the integration of architecture and aesthetics in bridge design and received awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Steel Construction for his designs.
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