Huey P. Long Bridge (Baton Rouge)

Huey P. Long Bridge
Huey P. Long Bridge
	Huey P. Long Bridge from the southwest
Coordinates	30°30′25″N91°11′51″W / 30.50694°N 91.19750°W
Carries	4 lanes of US 190 ; 1 Canadian Pacific Kansas City rail line
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Official name	Huey P. Long - O.K. Allen Bridge
Other name(s)	Old Bridge
Maintained by	Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development
ID number	611700071000001
Characteristics
Design	Cantilever truss bridge
Total length	5,879 feet (1,792 m)
Clearance below	113 feet (34 m)
History
Construction cost	$8.4 million
Opened	August 1940
Statistics
Daily traffic	17,300
Location

Last updated January 25, 2025

The Huey P. Long - O.K. Allen Bridge (locally known as the Old Bridge) is a truss cantilever bridge over the Mississippi River carrying US 190 (Airline Highway) and one rail line between East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana and West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

It was the only bridge across the Mississippi in Baton Rouge from its opening until April 1968, when the Horace Wilkinson Bridge ("the new bridge") carrying Interstate 10 opened. Until 2011, when the John James Audubon Bridge opened between St. Francisville and New Roads, it was the last bridge crossing the Mississippi before the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge, almost 100 miles to the north.

Design

The bridge is similar in design to the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (until the downstream bridge was widened to six lanes in 2013). Its lanes are narrow and during cold weather, it has a tendency to ice over.

Due to the low height of the bridge, Baton Rouge is the furthest inland port on the Mississippi River that can accommodate ocean-going tankers and cargo carriers. The ships transfer their cargo (grain, oil, cars, containers) at Baton Rouge onto rails and pipelines (to travel east–west) or barges (to travel north). In addition, the river depth decreases significantly just to the north, near Port Hudson.^[4]

State of repair

The bridge itself is currently in a poor state of repair; the girder foundations on both railroad approach spans are beginning to show hairline cracks, but engineers have assured the city that the bridge is not in any imminent danger.^[3]

The bridge has been repainted several times since its construction, including in the mid-1960s when the bridge was repainted orange; this was done to match the color of dust being emitted by the Kaiser Aluminum plant on the southeast bank of the river, which continually coated the bridge with aluminum oxide (bauxite) dust.^[5]^[6] It was widened in 1989, and again repainted between 2014 and 2016 to its original color of light gray.^[7]^[8]

Planned Interstate 410

The bridge was once planned as part of an Interstate 410.

Accidents

Only one person is reported to have driven off the edge of the bridge. In 1945, a cargo truck driver headed eastbound careened off the sides. The driver fell through the windshield and was crushed on a dock as his truck landed on top of him.^[3] The scars from the accident can still be seen on the dock to one's right approaching the east end of the eastbound span.

In popular culture

The bridge is featured in a scene in the 1982 Richard Pryor film, The Toy.

Related Research Articles

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 census, making it Louisiana's second-most populous city. It is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish, East Baton Rouge Parish, and the center of Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Baton Rouge, which had 870,569 residents in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstate 12</span> Interstate Highway in Louisiana

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West Baton Rouge Parish is one of the sixty-four parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Established in 1807, its parish seat is Port Allen. With a 2020 census population of 27,199 residents, West Baton Rouge Parish is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area.

Port Allen is a city in, and the parish seat of, West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. Located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, it is bordered by Interstate 10 and US Highway 190. The population was 4,939 in 2020. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area.

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Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in stages between 1925 and 1953 to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It runs 115.6 miles (186.0 km), carrying U.S. Highway 61 from New Orleans northwest to Baton Rouge and U.S. Highway 190 from Baton Rouge west over the Mississippi River on the Huey P. Long Bridge. US 190 continues west towards Opelousas on an extension built at roughly the same time.

Louisiana Highway 1 (LA 1) is a state highway in Louisiana. At 431.88 miles (695.04 km), it is the longest numbered highway of any class in Louisiana. It runs diagonally across the state, connecting the oil and gas fields near the island of Grand Isle with the northwest corner of the state, north of Shreveport.

U.S. Highway 90 (US 90), one of the major east–west U.S. Highways in the Southern United States, runs through southern Louisiana for 297.6 miles (478.9 km), serving Lake Charles, Lafayette, New Iberia, Morgan City, and New Orleans. Much of it west of Lafayette and east of New Orleans has been supplanted by Interstate 10 (I-10) for all but local traffic, but the section between Lafayette and New Orleans runs a good deal south of I-10.

Louisiana Highway 10 (LA 10) is a state highway located in southern Louisiana. It runs 255.51 miles (411.20 km) in an east–west direction from U.S. Highway 171 (US 171) south of Leesville to the Mississippi state line east of Bogalusa.

Louisiana Highway 25 (LA 25) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs 38.72 miles (62.31 km) in a north–south direction from U.S. Highway 190 (US 190) in Covington to the Mississippi state line north of Warnerton.

Louisiana Highway 76 (LA 76) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs 25.52 miles (41.07 km) in a general east–west direction from LA 77 in Maringouin to the junction of LA 1 and LA 987-4 in Port Allen.

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U.S. Highway 65 (US 65) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that spans 966 miles (1,555 km) from Clayton, Louisiana to Albert Lea, Minnesota. Within the state of Louisiana, the highway travels 100.77 miles (162.17 km) from the national southern terminus at US 425/LA 15 in Clayton to the Arkansas state line north of Lake Providence.

U.S. Highway 61/190 Business is a business route of both U.S. Route 61 and U.S. Route 190 in Louisiana that serves as a boulevard into downtown Baton Rouge. It spans 10.89 miles (17.53 km) in a southeast to northwest direction and it is signposted as Business 61/190, generally without directional shields. It follows parts of the former alignment of US 61/190 through Baton Rouge, which existed in downtown Baton Rouge from 1935 until 1960.

References

↑ "Huey P. Long Bridge Widening".
↑ Will Sentel (December 3, 2013), Old bridge getting new look, The Advocate, archived from the original on August 10, 2014, retrieved August 7, 2014
1 2 3 "Paint Party". The Riverside Reader. [Port Allen, LA] October 1, 2012. Pg. 1. Print
↑ "Port of Greater Baton Rouge". Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
↑ AA Roads - US Highway 190 Mississippi River Bridge Archived June 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
↑ John Weeks.com - Huey P. Long Bridge
↑ "Ask The Advocate: Questions about the U.S. 190 bridge". The Advocate. July 6, 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
↑ "Historic Bridge Management Plan for the Old Mississippi River (Huey P. Long) Bridge" (PDF). Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Retrieved January 1, 2022.

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[1] "Huey P. Long Bridge Widening".

[2] Will Sentel (December 3, 2013), Old bridge getting new look, The Advocate, archived from the original on August 10, 2014, retrieved August 7, 2014

[whatis-3] 1 2 3 "Paint Party". The Riverside Reader. [Port Allen, LA] October 1, 2012. Pg. 1. Print

[4] "Port of Greater Baton Rouge". Archived from the original on June 14, 2006. Retrieved April 26, 2008.

[5] AA Roads - US Highway 190 Mississippi River Bridge Archived June 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

[6] John Weeks.com - Huey P. Long Bridge

[7] "Ask The Advocate: Questions about the U.S. 190 bridge". The Advocate. July 6, 2015. Retrieved January 1, 2022.

[8] "Historic Bridge Management Plan for the Old Mississippi River (Huey P. Long) Bridge" (PDF). Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Retrieved January 1, 2022.

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