The Leverett Circle Connector Bridge is a 1.7 mile-long highway

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

over the

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, carrying two lanes each of northbound and southbound traffic. It connects to

Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

(I-93) at the northern end (exit 18, formerly 26 from I-93 south) and splits at the southern end, providing direct access to both

Storrow Drive Storrow Drive, officially James Jackson Storrow Memorial Drive, is a major crosstown parkway in Boston, Massachusetts, running east–west along the southern bank of the Charles River. It is restricted to cars; trucks and buses are not permitt ...

and Leverett Circle in

. Going northbound, there is also a fork which provides access to the City Square Tunnel under Charlestown to proceed on

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, ...

(US 1) northbound via the

Tobin Bridge The Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge (formerly the Mystic River Bridge) is a cantilever bridge, cantilever truss bridge that spans more than from Charlestown, Boston, Boston to Chelsea, Massachusetts, Chelsea over the Mystic River in Massach ...

. The span was built in conjunction with the more dramatic Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge as part of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, widely known as the

Big Dig The Big Dig was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the then elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 90 to Logan I ...

. During construction, the Leverett Circle Connector Bridge was sometimes called "Baby Bridge". The bridge opened for traffic on October 7, 1999, at a cost of $22.27 million (equivalent to $ in ). Also known as the Storrow Drive Connector, it is the largest steel

box girder bridge A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beam (structure), beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite ma ...

in the United States. It was the winner of a July 2001 National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA) "prize bridge" award. Its weaving design was determined by the other major structures involved in the Big Dig but unlike other parts of the project, it was finished eight days ahead of schedule.

Major intersections

The entire route is in

, Suffolk County.

Gallery

File:TD Fleet Centre satellite view.png, Leverett Circle as seen behind

North Station North Station is a commuter rail and intercity rail terminal station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is served by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines – the Fitchburg Line, Haverhill Line, Lowell Line, and Newburyport/Rockport Line – and the Amtr ...

during Big Dig construction. File:TD_Banknorth_Garden_outside.jpg, Part of the rebuilt connector bridge at right.

References

{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, bridge = Leverett Circle Connector Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = Charles River Bridge , upstream signs = ''MBTA Commuter Rail'' , downstream =

Haymarket North Extension The Haymarket North Extension is a section of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's rapid transit Orange Line (MBTA), Orange Line which currently constitutes the northern section of the line. It runs from North Station (subway), North ...

, downstream signs = ''MBTA Orange Line'' Bridges in Boston West End, Boston Buildings and structures in Somerville, Massachusetts Bridges in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Road bridges in Massachusetts Transportation in Somerville, Massachusetts Bridges over the Charles River Bridges completed in 1999 1999 establishments in Massachusetts Steel bridges in the United States Box girder bridges in the United States

Major intersections

Gallery

See also

References