Betsy Ross Bridge

The Betsy Ross Bridge, also known as the Ross Memorial Bridge, is a continuous steel truss bridge spanning the Delaware River from the City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey. It was built from 1969 to 1974, and opened in April 1976, during the American Bicentennial Year. It was originally planned to be named as the "Delair Bridge", after a paralleling vertical lift bridge owned by Pennsylvania Railroad , but was instead later named for Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress and reputed creator of the first American flag in 1776, making it the first automotive bridge named for a woman in America and the second bridge overall . The bridge is adjacent to the mouth of Frankford Creek.

Construction began in 1969, and was completed in 1974. However, the bridge did not open to traffic until April 30, 1976 due to numerous problems with the communities where the bridge's ramps to and from Richmond Street were located. The problems were also related to the highway route's planned extension to the northwest from the Delaware River, across Northeast Philadelphia to connect with the Roosevelt Expressway. The cancellation of this extension, the planned Pennsylvania Route 90 resulted in the so-called "Evel Knievel" ghost ramps – with unfinished bridges and fly-over ramps, some of which were later constructed to serve nearby Aramingo Avenue in the city's Bridesburg section. Currently, the route serves as a high-level multi-lane bypass of the three-lane Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, which has a drawbridge on the span.

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