Delaware River crossings history ADDITION

Jim Crawford, executive director of E-ZPass IAG and a longtime toll man in New Jersey emailed us with comments on the history piece we published on the Washington Crossing Bridge. He says he lived for twenty years just up the hill across from the Washington Crossing State Park in NJ, and picked up a bit of the history.

He continues: "The toll-supported bridges were actually maintained by the DRJTBC with funds from the two states until about 1988 or 89 when a new compact covering the Agency was enacted.  In the earlier years the two State DOT's would annually appropriate monies to pay for each of the "free" bridges but in that year the two States decided that the Agency was properly financed to cover all the costs and full ownership was transferred to it.

"As for the creation of the DRJTBC you can correlate it to the building of the original Route 1 toll bridge and perhaps to the Phillipsburg RT 22  bridge.  These were the first of the new tollbridges.

"Dingman's Ferry (Bridge) is unique in that it has never been abandoned.  The bridge operates on the original ferry charter in a continuously operating company.  It even has some of the original restrictions (like allowing churchgoers free passage on Sundays).  It also closes for a couple of weeks each year for repairs.  Their one toll collector stands in the middle of the road during busy times and takes cash and script tickets from the drivers as they go by." END

He is commenting on this piece

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3842

website of DRJTBC:

http://www.drjtbc.org/default.aspx

website of Dingman's Ferry Bridge

http://www.dingmansbridge.com/

TOLLROADSnews 2008-11-28