Walt Whitman Bridge


The Walt Whitman Bridge is a single-level suspension bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Gloucester City, in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. Named after the poet Walt Whitman, who resided in nearby Camden toward the end of his life, the Walt Whitman Bridge is one of the larger bridges on the east coast of the United States. The bridge is owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority.

Overview

Construction on the bridge began in 1953, and it opened to traffic on May 16, 1957. The bridge has a total length of, and a main span of. The bridge has seven lanes, three in each direction and a center lane that is shifted variably to accommodate heavy traffic.
The bridge is a part of Interstate 76. Along with the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Betsy Ross Bridge, Delaware Memorial Bridge, Commodore Barry Bridge, and the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge, the Walt Whitman Bridge is one of six expressway-standard bridges connecting the Philadelphia area with southern New Jersey.
The bridge was designed by noted civil engineer Othmar Ammann. The Walt Whitman statue by Jo Davidson was placed at the intersection of Broad Street and Packer Avenue, in Philadelphia near the approach to the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Tolls

A $5.00 one-way toll is charged to westbound passenger vehicles traveling from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. A $12 credit used to be given on a per tag basis for any DRPA-issued E-ZPass tag that crosses one of the four DRPA bridges 18 times in a calendar month, this was removed during the bridge reconstruction budget increase. Trucks, commercial vehicles, mobile homes and recreation vehicles pay $7.50 per axle. Seniors aged 65 and over can use a ticket program to pay $2.00 per trip of their $2.50 toll. They can also apply to have the commuter discount applied through their E-ZPass account. There is no toll for eastbound vehicles traveling from Pennsylvania to New Jersey since 1992, when one-way tolls were instituted.