Steel rises in two towers over the Cape Fear River here, the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, a vertical-lift span in North Carolina. It carries US 17, US 76 and US 421 across the Cape Fear River between Brunswick County and New Hanover County, and it once carried U.S. Route 74 until that designation shifted to the Isabel Stellings Holmes Bridge. The bridge’s two-tower design supports a 408-foot lift span that normally sits 60 feet above the river and can be raised to 135 feet to let ships pass.
Construction began in 1967 and was completed in 1969; the project included a causeway at both ends and an overpass on the west side. Since it opened, this has been the only connection on the south side of downtown Wilmington, replacing an earlier ferry that ran from the foot of Market Street to Peter Point. The Port of Wilmington lies to the south and downtown Wilmington to the north.
Over time the bridge has been cared for: new paint in 1986, new decking in 1996, a new control system in 2007, and after the Minneapolis bridge incident all the cross beams were replaced and another paint job was done in 2011. Look south toward the Port of Wilmington and then north to downtown Wilmington.