Bridge between New Hope, PA & Lambertville, NJ
For over 200 years, a bridge has spanned the Delaware River between the communities that are now known as New Hope, PA. and Lambertville, N.J. The first bridge was a wooden, covered structure that opened as a privately owned, tolled crossing in 1814. The current steel truss structure also opened as private toll bridge in 1904, replacing its wooden predecessor that was destroyed by the devastating Great Pumpkin Flood of 1903.
Today the bridge carries the most pedestrian traffic of any crossing along the Delaware River. It also might be the river’s most photographed and painted bridge. Inextricably linked to its namesake communities, this river crossing’s history includes an illegal bank, state receivership, tolls on pedestrians and livestock, a failed trolley line, and nearly a century of public ownership. The bridge’s story will be told in pictures and words on Tuesday, June 19th at 7 PM at Prallsville Mills.
