Darlington's Bridge at Delaware Station | |
|---|---|
 The area of the Darlington's Bridge. The bridge was south of the current one (marked as "Conrail Railroad") and near where Hemlock Hill Road, Route 163 and Route 46 would get closest to the river in Delaware Station. | |
| Coordinates | 40°53′58″N 75°04′29″W / 40.8995°N 75.0748°W |
| Crosses | Delaware River |
| Locale | Delaware, New Jersey and Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania |
| Official name | Darlington's Bridge at Delaware Station |
| Maintained by | Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (1855–1914) Henry V. Darlington (1914–1932) Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (1932–1954) |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Truss bridge |
| Total length | 740 feet (230 m) |
| Load limit | 15 tons (30,000 pounds (14,000 kg)) |
| History | |
| Opened | 1855 (railroad bridge) December 19, 1914 (highway bridge) |
| Closed | April 3, 1954 |
| Statistics | |
| Toll | $0.25 (until 1932), equal to $5.58 today) |
| Location | |
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The Darlington's Bridge at Delaware Station was a highway bridge that spanned the Delaware River in the community of Delaware, New Jersey (known locally as Delaware Station).
A railroad bridge built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1871 to replace an earlier 1855 timber span, this bridge was sold off when a new bridge was erected upstream. Henry V. Darlington, an Episcopal minister in Delaware and nearby Belvidere offered to buy the second-hand bridge for $5,000 (1914 USD, equal to $152,093 today). Darlington converted it into a highway bridge, using two fired members of the nearby Meyer's Ferry to be toll collectors.
The use of this bridge subsequently increased; as a result, it became part of State Highway Route 6 in 1927 and U.S. Route 46 in 1936. In 1932, during the massive state takeover of bridges by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, Darlington refused buyout offers, bargaining his way up to $275,000 (1932 USD, equal to $6,141,220 today) before accepting the sale. This amount was far less than the sale prices of the nearby Belvidere-Riverton and Portland-Columbia Covered Bridge, which were accepted for $60,000 (equal to $1,339,902 today) and $50,000 (equal to $1,116,585 today) respectively.
Around that same time, tolls on this bridge and Route 6 were eliminated, and the bridge continued to operate toll-free for twenty-one years, until the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge was erected upstream at Columbia. The Commission finally ceased operations on the Darlington Bridge on April 3, 1954, and the bridge was immediately demolished.