The James River Bridge (JRB) is a four-lane

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and sw ...

across the James River in the Commonwealth of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Owned and operated by the

Virginia Department of Transportation The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is the agency of the state government responsible for transportation in the state of Virginia in the United States. VDOT is headquartered at the Virginia Department of Highways Building in downtown ...

, it carries U.S. Route 17 (US 17), US 258, and State Route 32 across the river near its mouth at Hampton Roads. The bridge connects

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

on the

Virginia Peninsula The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the n ...

with

Isle of Wight County Isle of Wight County is a county located in the Hampton Roads region of the U.S. state of Virginia. It was named after the Isle of Wight, England, south of the Solent, from where many of its early colonists had come. As of the 2020 census, th ...

in the

South Hampton Roads South Hampton Roads is a region located in the extreme southeastern portion of Virginia's Tidewater region in the United States with a total population of 1,191,937. It is part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA (Metropolitan S ...

region, and is the easternmost such crossing without a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

component. When completed in 1928, the 4.5-mile (7 km) bridge was the longest bridge in the world over water. The original two-lane bridge was replaced from 1975 to 1982 with a wider four-lane bridge that could handle increased traffic volumes. In 2005, the bridge carried an

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a ...

of about 30,000 vehicles per day.

Description of the current bridge

At the

end, traffic approaches the bridge at a six-ramp partial cloverleaf interchange, where Mercury Boulevard (carrying U.S. Route 17, U.S. Route 258, and State Route 32 onto the bridge) passes over Warwick Boulevard ( U.S. Route 60). After an intersection with River Road and the entrance to

Huntington Park Huntington Park is a city in the Gateway Cities district of southeastern Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 58,114, of whom 97% are Hispanic/Latino and about half were born outside th ...

, the four-lane divided bridge begins, lying to the southeast a part of the old bridge that remains as a

fishing pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...

. The 126.5 m (415.0 ft) lift span over the shipping channel, with a clearance of 44.1 m (145 ft) when raised and 18.2 m (59.7 ft) when lowered, is about 1/4 of the way along the 7.0714 km (4.3940 mi) bridge. This allows ocean-going ships to pass en route to civilian port facilities in Hopewell and at the

Port of Richmond The Port of Richmond, also known as the Richmond Deepwater Terminal, is located on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, United States, inland from Cape Henry and approximately northwest of Newport News, Virginia. It is located at 77° 2 ...

Lift span of James River Bridge at sunset (2011)

The roadway becomes Carrollton Boulevard on the

end; after a number of intersections, US 258 and SR 32 turn west at Bartlett towards

State Route 10 Route 10, or Highway 10, can refer to routes in the following countries: International * European route E10 * European route E010 Argentina * La Pampa Provincial Route 10 Australia Queensland * Smith Street Motorway (Queensland) * Scenic H ...

at Benns Church, while US 17 curves southeast towards

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 ...

. The nearest upstream crossing of the James River is the

Jamestown Ferry The Jamestown Ferry (also known as the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry) is a free automobile and bus ferry service across a navigable portion of the James River in Virginia. It carries State Route 31, connecting Jamestown in James City County with Sc ...

( State Route 31); the next fixed crossing is the 1966 Benjamin Harrison Bridge ( State Route 156) at Hopewell. When the bridge opened in 1928, the next bridge upstream was the 1913 Mayo Bridge in Richmond. Downstream, both crossings of Hampton Roads are bridge-tunnels for military reasons: the 1992 Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel (

Interstate 664 Interstate 664 (I-664) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Virginia. The Interstate runs from I-64 and I-264 in Chesapeake north to I-64 in Hampton. I-664 forms the west side of the Hampton Roads Beltway, a circumferen ...

) and 1957

Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick *Hamp ...

(

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchang ...

/ U.S. Route 60). Bicycles,

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typ ...

s, and pedestrians are banned from using the bridge; the easternmost crossing for them is the

, about upstream. The State Highway and Transportation Commission banned these transportation modes from using the bridge in 1978 "in the interest of safety", due to high traffic and lack of sidewalks. Once the replacement bridge was completed, they returned to the question in 1983, and decided to continue the ban, since the new bridge also had no sidewalks or sufficient recovery area.

History

The

privately owned A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

James River Bridge Corporation was chartered by the General Assembly to build a system of bridges across the James River, Chuckatuck Creek, and Nansemond River, as well as approach roads. On the

end, the bridge simply ended at an intersection with State Route 39/ U.S. Route 60 (Virginia Avenue, now Warwick Boulevard).Map of Warwick County
late 1920s However, a large system of approach roads, including two smaller toll bridges, was built on the

side. Traffic coming off the bridge reached a

Y intersection A three-way junction (or three-way intersection) is a type of road intersection with three arms. A Y junction (or Y intersection) generally has three arms of equal size coming at an acute or obtuse angle to each other; while a T junction (or T i ...

at Bartlett, at which it could head west over a private approach road past Carrollton to

at Benns Church, or head southeast into Nansemond County. The first of the two smaller bridges was the

Crittenden Bridge The Crittenden Bridge, also known as the Chuckatuck Creek Bridge, is officially named The Sidney B. Hazelwood Sr. Bridge after a prominent member of the community. This bridge is part of U.S. Route 17 and connects Suffolk, Virginia with Isle of ...

over Chuckatuck Creek (the county line) at Crittenden, and the second, after passing the road to Hobson and Chuckatuck (now State Route 628), was the Nansemond River Bridge over the Nansemond River. The end of the private approach road was at the current intersection of Bennetts Pasture Road ( State Route 627) and Lee Farm Lane (State Route 701), where one could go south to

(now State Route 337) at Driver.Map of Nansemond County
revised July 1, 1936Map of Isle of Wight County
revised July 1, 1936 So the James River Bridge System served not only traffic crossing the James River, but also traffic along State Route 10; the 1928 Chuckatuck-Driver Kings Highway Bridge (now State Route 125) competed with the James River Bridge System for this traffic. The $5.2 million James River Bridge was opened on November 17, 1928, by the press of a button in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, sitting in the Oval Office of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

, sent an electric signal to lower into place the upraised lift span over the James River channel. Drivers could now choose to cross Hampton Roads on a fixed bridge rather than one of many

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

. The new bridge was narrow by current standards, with a roadway from curb to curb, and railings much less substantial than found on modern structures. The main lift span was 300 feet (90 m) long; the other two bridges included 110-foot (34 m) bascule spans. From 1928 to 1931, State Route 503, a state highway from

via Churchland and Belleville to the private approach road south of the Nansemond River, was added to the state highway system. U.S. Route 17 was moved onto this alignment (from one of the ferries) by 1932, and still uses it today. State Route 258, now part of U.S. Route 258, was extended over the Benns Church approach and bridge by late 1943 to reach the new Mercury Boulevard. Thus all approaches had numbers at the time of the state takeover in 1949. In 1951, State Route 32 was extended from Suffolk over the bridge to end in Newport News, completely overlapped with other routes, "to facilitate the routing of traffic over the James River Bridge System, between points north of Newport News and south of Suffolk".

Tolls, ownership, shunpiking

As early as 1933, the State Highway Commission (SHC) considered taking over the bridge approaches - but not the bridges themselves - from the corporation. Projected traffic volumes were not reached, leading to bankruptcy of the James River Bridge Corporation. It was bought by bondholders, headed by a local businessman from Smithfield. The new owners raised tolls, proving unpopular with local residents.Lon Wagner
Groups driven to save James River toll plaza

The Virginian-Pilot ''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Norfolk, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgini ...

, June 20, 2004 Chapter 399 of the Acts of Virginia of 1940 authorized the SHC to acquire the James River Bridge System, consisting of the three bridges and approach roads. The SHC bought the system from the corporation for $5.6 million on September 30, 1949. (equivalent to $ million in dollars). However, in 1955, the state doubled tolls to $1.80 round trip for cars (equivalent to $ in dollars) and $4.00 or more for trucks (equivalent to $ in dollars) in order to pay for repairs, new toll booths, and a new

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

system compatible with the

. The toll plazas, which had numbered three - one for each bridge - were consolidated to two, one at the south end of the main bridge and one at the north end of the Nansemond River Bridge. Thus the

became free for local traffic. In addition, passenger vehicles and

light truck Light truck or light-duty truck is a US classification for vehicles with a gross vehicle weight up to and a payload capacity up to 4,000 pounds (1,815 kg). Similar goods vehicle classes in the European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zeala ...

s only had to pay at the first booth they reached; large trucks and buses had to pay twice. This meant that light vehicles crossing only the main bridge (for instance between Smithfield and Newport News) only had to pay southbound. J.W. Luter, Jr. of the local

Smithfield Packing Company The Smithfield Packing Company sells meat products such as ham, ground pork, pork chops, bacon, and lunch meat. It sells its products worldwide. The company was founded in 1936. It is based in Smithfield, Virginia. It is part of Smithfield Foo ...

rerouted his trucks via a smaller, cheaper bridge owned by a

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

car dealer. Tolls were eventually dropped to 10 cents per axle, and later removed on June 3, 1976; the state paid off the remaining bonds at that time. Simultaneously, the parallel

opened, and tolls were removed from that facility, the

Coleman Bridge The George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge (known locally as simply the Coleman Bridge) is a double swing bridge that spans the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester Point, in the United States state of Virginia. It connects the Peninsula and ...

, and the Robert O. Norris Bridge. Many considered this an important step in the development of the area. The former toll building and parking area was used for maintenance workers, police, and tow truck drivers until 2002, when asbestos was discovered. Preservationists have argued the building had historic significance.

Replacement bridge without tolls: 1975-1982

A new four-lane lift bridge was completed in stages from 1975 to 1982. During construction, the two southbound lanes of the new bridge were completed first and carried northbound traffic while the old bridge carried two lanes of southbound traffic until the northbound lanes of the new bridge were completed. When the northbound lanes of the new bridge opened the old bridge was demolished, but a 0.75-mile (1.2 km) section on the Newport News side was retained for use as a fishing pier. Now known as the James River Pier, it is the longest fishing pier on the East Coast. Due to severe corrosion of the metal beams that supported the deck of the 86-year-old bridge structure, the James River Pier was demolished and rebuilt of concrete in 2015.

References

External links

Roads to the Future: James River Bridge (US-17)
{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place = James River , bridge = James River Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream =