First known as the Bushkill Street bridge, it was built in response to the rise in popularity of affordable automobiles.
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The Route 22 toll bridge turned 75 years old last week.
The Easton-Phillipsburg Route 22 bridge has crossed over into the winter of life.
The toll bridge, constructed in 1938, turned 75 years old last week.
First known as the Bushkill Street bridge, it was built in response to the rise in popularity of affordable automobiles.
Easton historian Len Buscemi said he remembered reading that the bridge was reinforced in case New York City was evacuated.
“It was the only bridge over the Delaware River up at this end that could transport heavy equipment over it,” he said.
Buscemi also recalls a story about Nazi supporters sizing up the overpass.
“During World War II, there were a lot of German sympathizers in the area,” he said. “And a couple people were caught, supposedly they were attempting to blow the bridge up.
"They caught them, and they were removed to some place and they were never seen again,” he said.
Buscemi acknowledged the line is likely blurred between fact and fiction.
"But it’s interesting," he said.
In 1954, Pennsylvania completed Route 22, a $20 million highway connecting Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown. Buscemi said homes occupied the right side of Bushkill Street but were demolished to incorporate the new "superhighway."
“Prior to Route 22, the bridge went straight into Bushkill Street,” he said.
The bridge carried 951,312 vehicles during its shortened first year. By 1953 annual traffic rose to more than 3 million vehicles, according to the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, which maintains the bridge.
An estimated 12 million vehicles crossed the bridge in 2012, which makes it the fourth most traveled toll bridge of the seven bridges owned and operated by the commission, according to the group’s website.
It cost motorists 10 cents in 1938 to cross the bridge in either direction, compared with $1 to enter Pennsylvania today.
Toll revenue will go toward a facelift for the entire bridge scheduled to begin in June. The project, which promises massive structural upgrades, will limit traffic to single lanes in each direction for about six months in 2013 and nine months in 2014, according to a news release. Work is expected to be completed in 2015.
Phillipsburg resident Ron Wynkoop, 81, said he also recalled a story about the bridge, but he swore it wasn't folklore.
“It was some brave character, a professional sky walker, so to speak,” he said. “He walked across the top of that bridge from one end to the other.
"Believe it or not,” Wynkoop said.