The northbound lanes of the bridge were opened to the public without fanfare on July 30, 1954. The bridge was formally renamed in 1974 for former Governor Alfred E. Driscoll, who advocated for and oversaw the construction of the Garden State Parkway, as well as for the New Jersey Turnpike. The original span was built with two lanes in each direction. A second span was added in 1972, with each span serving five lanes of traffic. The bridge had very narrow lanes which created traffic bottlenecks for miles in each direction on the Garden State Parkway, until it was widened. The bridge was later restriped to have twelve ten-foot lanes, six in each direction. Construction on a new southbound bridge started on September 25, 2002, and the new bridge opened to traffic on May 3, 2006. The existing span was then closed for rehabilitation, and it reopened on May 20, 2009. The new configuration has seven southbound lanes on the newly constructed span, and the original span has eight lanes and carries northbound traffic only. The northbound span is also divided, with four lanes on each side. The west side contains four lanes for through traffic on the Parkway, and the east side contains three lanes for Exit 127 of the Parkway and one lane for through traffic. The Driscoll Bridge is now the world's widest bridge, in terms of total number of travel lanes. The toll charged for this bridge is not for the bridge itself but rather a toll for driving on the Garden State Parkway; The toll was 35 cents each way until September 2004 when it was doubled from 35 to 70 cents for southbound cars only. Then the toll was increased to $1.00 from December 2008 to December 2011 and then it was increased to $1.50 on January 2012 to present to southbound traffic after passing the bridge. This along with many other Parkway toll plazas, has been converted to one-way in an effort to reduce traffic congestion. The speed limit on the Garden State Parkway was 45 mph between Milepost 126.7 and 127.7, approaching and traversing the Driscoll Bridge. As of February 2020, the speed limit was raised to 55 mph. This bridge contains views of some of the taller buildings in the lower Manhattan Skyline, the New Brunswick Skyline and the Outerbridge Crossing.
Murder on the bridge
On February 17, 2010, Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his daughter by throwing her off the bridge. The body of an infant matching the girl's description was found on the south bank of the Raritan River on April 24 and was later identified as the missing girl through DNA testing.
