View from the Ben Franklin Bridge Nikon FM2 10/27/99 11:30am < More views from the bridge > < Satellite Image of the Ben Franklin Br. >   Historical Tidbits:

Spanning the Delaware at Philadelphia was first seriously proposed in 1818, not long after the bridge upriver at Trenton, New Jersey, proved an economic boom. Other bridge proposals were considered and rejected in the late 1850s and again in the 1870s. Until the Delaware River Bridge and Tunnel Commission was created in 1914, people made due with ferries between Philadelphia and Camden. The idea of a tunnel was rejected, and construction of the bridge was begun. Twelve years and $37,103,765 later, the 1.81 mile Delaware River Bridge, designed by Ralph Modjeski, opened as part of the Sesqui-Centennial celebration. On January 17, 1955, the bridge was renamed after Benjamin Franklin to mark the two hundred fifteith anniversary of his birth.* The Delaware River was erroneously named for William West, twelfth Baron De La Warr (1577-1618) who, the English thought, had discovered the river. In fact, Henry Hudson did.** (William West was the 1st governor of the English colony of Virginia. He arrived in the colony in 1610 and dissuaded the colonists, who were in dire need, from returning to England. The state of Delaware is also named for him.)***   * from Philadelphia Then and Now by Kenneth Finkel and Susan Oyama ©1988 The Library Company of Philadelphia Dover Publications, Inc. New York ** from Mermaids, Monasteries, Cherokees and Custer: the stories behind Philadelphia street names by Robert I. Alotta Bonus Books, Inc. ©Robert I. Alotta, 1990 *** from Encyclopedia.com

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