Look up at the stone arches of the Bulkeley Bridge, arching over the Connecticut River since 1908. Completed in 1908, this stone arch bridge is the oldest of three highway bridges spanning the Connecticut River between Hartford and East Hartford. It is composed of nine spans whose arches sit on stout stone piers, each arch ranging from 68 feet to 119 feet in length, and the total length reaches 1,192 feet.
The deck carries Interstate 84 along with U.S. Route 6 and U.S. Route 44; in 2005 the bridge handled an average of 142,500 cars each day. The Bulkeley Bridge is the oldest bridge in the Hartford area and one of the oldest bridges still in use in the Interstate Highway System. It is also the largest and one of the last major stone arch bridges to be built in New England, and its historical, architectural, and engineering significance earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
You are standing near the story of an earlier crossing too: the Hartford Toll Bridge opened in 1818 with a 974-foot span and had trolley lines added in 1890. Picture the roughly 142,500 vehicles that once crossed here each day, streaming over nine stone spans toward East Hartford.