From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge up and moves south as a retractable bridge, coming to
rest on top of the rail tracks inside the truss. This creates
a waterway large enough for most recreational boats to
pass through without the need for interruption of auto-
mobile traffic on the bridge.
History
Completed in 1940, the bridge is the second to carry mo-
tor vehicle traffic between Maine and New Hampshire at
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge seen from Kittery, ME. Portsmouth, and replaced a river crossing dating from
1822.[2] The bridge was the direct result of the work of
Official Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
name
the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority,
which had been formed in 1937. The major goal of the
Carries US 1 Bypass bridge project was to relieve congestion in downtown
Crosses Piscataqua River Portsmouth and Kittery, where US 1 crossed the river via
the Memorial Bridge, which had opened in 1923.
Locale Portsmouth, NH and Kittery, ME From 1960 until 1972, the bridge, along with the US
Maintained Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge 1 Bypass north of the Portsmouth Circle, filled a gap in
by Authority Interstate 95, which had been designated along both the
New Hampshire Turnpike and the Maine Turnpike.
ID number 021702510010800[1]
Although most of the Bypass is four lanes wide, the
Design Steel Truss Lift Bridge bridge itself originally had only a three-lane roadbed,
Total 854.7 m (2,804 ft) with traffic on the center lane switching direction de-
length pending on load (the bridge has since been reduced to
just two lanes). This, combined with being a drawbridge,
Width 9.1 m (29.9 ft)
placed the bridge far below Interstate highway stan-
Vertical 5.09 m (16.7 ft) dards. The turnpikes, and therefore I-95 in the two states,
clearance did not directly connect until the opening of the Pis-
Clearance 41 m (134.5 ft) (Lift span open) cataqua River Bridge and the extensions of I-95 leading to
below it in the early 1970s.
Opened 1940
Daily traffic 14900 (1990)
Railroad
The railroad track that runs across the bridge was origi-
Coordinates 43°05′09″N 70°45′39″W / 43.0859°N
nally part of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and connect-
70.76091°W / 43.0859; -70.76091Coordinates:
43°05′09″N 70°45′39″W / 43.0859°N ed to South Berwick via an easement that is now Rt.
70.76091°W / 43.0859; -70.76091 236. The bridge replaced a railroad trestle that was locat-
ed just upriver. The trestle collapsed on September 10,
The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is a lift bridge that carries 1939, sending the engine (B&M #3666) and baggage car to
the US 1 Bypass over the Piscataqua River between the bottom of the river, where they remain. It had been
Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine. The weakened when a caisson used in the construction of the
bridge is a double deck truss bridge, with the US 1 Bypass new bridge dragged its anchor cables, which pulled out
road deck above and a railroad bed below. several of the trestle’s bents.
The bridge features two separate movable spans. Currently, the tracks lead only to the Portsmouth
While the main lift span and its towers are the obvious Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and are used for the trans-
primary moving feature, the second moving span is only portation of nuclear materials.
apparent to water and rail traffic. On the north side of
the bridge, the first non-trussed section of rail bed lifts
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Naming
For many years, the bridge was simply known as the
Maine-New Bridge".
"Maine-New Hampshire (Interstate) Bridge In 1987, the
bridge was renamed to honor Sarah M. Long, who had
been an employee of the Maine-New Hampshire Inter-
state Bridge Authority for 50 years. Starting with the
agency in 1937 when the Authority was created, Ms. Long Looking upstream from the Memorial Bridge at the Sarah Mil-
filled a number of positions, from secretary to executive dred Long Bridge and the Piscataqua River Bridge
director.[3]
Due to its location in Portsmouth Harbor between
the Memorial Bridge and the Piscataqua River Bridge, the
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is sometimes simply referred
to as "the middle bridge" or "the old toll bridge."
Maintenance
As of January 2008, New Hampshire is planning to take
control of the bridge from the Maine-New Hampshire In-
terstate Bridge Authority so that it can spend an estimat-
ed $1.2 million to repair the bridge.[1] A bill passed by
the New Hampshire Senate contemplates splitting main-
tenance costs with Maine, pending approval by the Unit-
ed States Congress to dissolve the Authority.[4]
Photographs
Sarah Mildred Long Bridge seen from Portsmouth
Lift towers of the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Movable rail bed on the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Nuclear fuel transport train leaving Kittery
See also
• U.S. Route 1 Bypass (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
References 2004news/03022004/obituari/2931.htm. Retrieved
2006-10-02.
[1] Nationalbridges.com. "National Bridge Inventory [4] "HB 0754". http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/
Bridges - 021702510010800". legislation/2008/HB0754.html. Retrieved
http://nationalbridges.com/nbi_record.php. 2008-02-12.
Retrieved 2006-09-29.
[2] nh.gov. "Summary of The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge:
A History Of The Maine-New Hampshire Interstate
External links
Bridge From Portsmouth, New Hampshire, To Kittery , • gencourt.state.nh.us Legislation outlining the
Maine". http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/nhbooks/ formation of the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate
sarahm.html. Retrieved 2006-10-02. Bridge Authority.
[3] "Portsmouth Herald Obituaries from: Tuesday, • massroads.com More pictures of the bridge,
March 2, 2004". http://www.seacoastonline.com/ including the movable rail section in the closed
position.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Mildred_Long_Bridge"
Categories: Vertical lift bridges, Road-rail bridges, Bridges completed in 1940, Bridges in New Hampshire, Bridges in
Maine, Buildings and structures in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Bridges in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Rail-
road bridges in Maine
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