Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge - Vertical Lift Bridges on Waymarking.com

It carries vehicle traffic of Virginia State Highway 156 and is owned by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).The mile-long drawbridge replaced ferry service when it was completed in 1966. It featured a 360-ft long vertical lift span to facilitate passage of shipping traffic on this portion of the James River, which is navigable from Hampton Roads upstream to the Port of Richmond, about 23 miles west of the bridge.


Tanker ship crashes into bridge
On February 24, 1977, the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge was the scene of a spectacular and costly accident. An ocean-going tanker ship, the 5,700 ton, 523-ft long S.S. Marine Floridian, was eastbound, heading downriver from Richmond. As the ship rounded a bend in the channel of the James River at the confluence of the Appomattox River near City Point and began the approach to the Benjamin Harrison Bridge, the steering gear malfunctioned, and the pilot lost control of the ship.
The bridge tender had placed the lift span in the "raised" position in anticipation of the ship's passage, and motorists were sitting in their vehicles behind the warning gates waiting. As the large ship veered off course to the north, the occupants of southbound vehicles waiting on the bridge saw the ship coming directly toward them, and managed to get out of their cars and run to safety before the ship rammed the bridge. [1]
The ship missed the open portion and struck part of the fixed span. Four unoccupied vehicles tumbled into the river, and part of the bridge structure collapsed onto the deck of ship, which was wedged under the wreckage of the bridge. The bridge tender, a state employee, was trapped in the control booth located on the raised lift span near the south end. Despite the massive damage, there were no serious injuries.

Visit Instructions:
1) After you've found a vertical lift bridge, go visit it, get the coordinates, a picture or two of it, and if it is in use or not still as a lift bridge.
Then log it and post your pictures! At least one of the photos must be of you and your GPS there with the bridge in the background. (No old vacation shots or photos off the internet!)
2) Include the coordinates, city/county/state/country and the name of the bridge (if it has one).
3) Include any interesting information about the structure

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   08/08/2014 banjoforester visited it 07/24/2012 xptwo visited it 07/31/2009 archway visited it 07/08/2006 JBYJEFF visited it

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