The Hampton Bridge is a

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- o ...

that spans the

Hampton River The Hampton River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tidal estuary which empties into Hampton Roads near its mouth. Hampton Roads in turn empties into th ...

near

Hampton Beach, New Hampshire Hampton Beach is a village district, census-designated place, and beach resort in the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, United States, along the Atlantic Ocean. Its population at the 2020 census was 2,598. Hampton Beach is in Rockingham County, abo ...

, United States. Constructed with steel and concrete, the bridge is officially named for Neil R. Underwood. Its predecessor was constructed of wood by Wallace D. Lovell and was referred to as the Mile-Long Wooden Bridge. For a time in the early 1900s, Hampton Bridge earned the title of longest bridge in the United States. The completion of the old bridge took almost a year and according to the ''Exeter Newsletter'' of July 5, 1901, was a "great undertaking". Long hours of manpower went into moving materials and building it. The bridge measured in length and in width. It was supported by 3,865 wooden piles driven deep into the bottom of the river. Moving the materials used to build the bridge presented a great challenge. A tugboat named the ''H.A. Mathes'' towed rafts full of lumber to the bridge site from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. "Other materials were floated downstream to the bridge from the railroad station at Hampton Falls." The official opening of the "Mile-long Bridge" was May 14, 1901. Chester B. Jordan, the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

at the time, was among many political figures who attended the opening. As the end of the era of trolley cars rolled in, automobiles took over and the wooden bridge was not effective anymore. Lovell sold the bridge to the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway. "By 1930, the structure began to show the strain of the years of shifting sands, ice floes and heavy traffic."

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

was faced with making plans for a modernized structure to replace the wooden bridge. The current bridge opened in 1949.

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{{commonscat inline, Hampton Bridge Bridges completed in 1902 Bridges in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Road bridges in New Hampshire Bascule bridges in the United States Steel bridges in the United States Concrete bridges in the United States Girder bridges in the United States