I was noticing that in my home state of New Jersey the Raritan River has no crossings between the Alfred Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State Parkway and the John Basilone Bridge on I-95 ( the NJ Turnpike). Basically Edison Township shares a border with Sayreville and South River, but no roads between them. Though the distance between these two crossings is not really that far to make circumventing around not that much inconvenience, still I find it odd in the days of settlement in the Garden State that a need to get across the river wasn't established.
For example, Middlesex County Route 529 terminates at Middlesex CR 514 instead of continuing into South River. Also the fact Edison has lots of industry along the Raritan due to access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Raritan Bay, you figure a bridge would have been built there for migrant workers to use South River as a bedroom community.
Of course there are other areas of a gap between river crossings for various reasons. Much has to do with sparse population in the region and the fact shallow water makes the river not practical for port cities, or in a land locked environment or wetlands. Many factors at hand. However the Raritan River in NJ is deepwater all the way to where the NJ Turnpike crosses, and you figure more ports would have established there. Plus in the days of pioneering you figure County Route 529 would have been established as a longer corridor from Old Bridge to Green Brook/ Watchung area as well.
I guess my real question is what really makes some rivers an obstacle to not want to cross them especially in populated or where a possible bridge could have been built besides deepwater and impossible topography?
I suppose the most famous example is Brazzaville and Kinshasa in Africa. On opposite banks of the Congo River, there is only one ferry left across the river, and it's not suitable for cars.
The eastern half of London is famously lacking bridges over the Thames.
In terms of reasons for there not being crossings, political opposition can obviously be a big one. The Potomac River northwest of DC is well-known for not having any crossings between I-495 and US-15 (now that White's Ferry is defunct) because of strenuous opposition to any such crossings in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Brăila (180,000) and Galați (250,000) are two nearby Romanian cities on the left bank of the Danube.
Yet they never built a bridge across the Danube until now.
One of the largest suspension bridges in Europe is being built there right now.
(https://i.imgur.com/fTJaJr4.jpg)
The Danube is notoriously poorly bridged, until 2013 there were only three bridges on the nearly 1,000 kilometers of the Lower Danube downstream from the Iron Gate dams. There are now 4, almost 5. Still not a whole lot.
The Grand River has surprisingly few bridges upstream and downstream from Grand Rapids. There have been newer bridges added south of Belmont and for M-231. But there still are very few bridges in Ottawa County or in western Ionia County and the eastern Kent County.
In Oklahoma, the Canadian River has few enough crossings between McClain and Cleveland counties that any routing between the two is rather circuitous by Oklahoma standards. This is probably because McClain County has only really started to get a lot of population growth in the past 30 years, and because the natural street grid is at a 45 degree angle to the river, so its rather wide floodplain is awkward to cross.
There are no Mississippi River bridges south of I-255 near St Louis until the MO 51 bridge at Chester (https://www.google.com/maps/@38.2084062,-90.3165608,10.53z?hl=en). This wasn't a big issue in the past, but during the past half century the stretch of I-55 from Arnold to Festus has had a huge jump in population. Jeffco's population (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_County,_Missouri#Demographics) has gone from barely 100K in 1970 to 226K in 2020 and the majority of that increase is along the I-55 corridor. While the east side of the river hasn't increased as much, both Columbia and Waterloo have also been growing. There is enough traffic to support a ferry (https://www.stegenmodocferry.com/) from Ste Genevieve to Modoc.
The Zilwaukee Bridge is the only bridge between Saginaw and Bay City. Saginaw has 7 river crossings and Bay City has 4 (currently 3 with the Liberty Bridge being closed).
Quebec City has only one set of bridges across the St. Lawrence River (two bridges nearly adjacent). In fact there are only two locations where you can cross the St. Lawrence by bridge, downstream from Montréal.
IMHO, the Potomac River has remarkably few really usable crossings in the DC metro area.
Also, there are even fewer usable crossings, between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON and even fewer in the Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, ON area.
Mike
Quote from: mgk920 on November 02, 2022, 07:06:03 PM
Also, there are even fewer usable crossings, between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON and even fewer in the Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, ON area.
Actually, 4 Niagara River crossings in 30 miles seems like kind of a lot compared to just 3 St. Lawrence crossings in nearly 400 miles northeast of Montreal.
Quote from: Chris on November 02, 2022, 05:58:28 PM
Quebec City has only one set of bridges across the St. Lawrence River (two bridges nearly adjacent). In fact there are only two locations where you can cross the St. Lawrence by bridge, downstream from Montréal.
And the third crossing (in Quebec) being proposed by the government has proven to be very controversial.
Quote from: webny99 on November 02, 2022, 07:50:25 PM
Quote from: mgk920 on November 02, 2022, 07:06:03 PM
Also, there are even fewer usable crossings, between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON and even fewer in the Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, ON area.
Actually, 4 Niagara River crossings in 30 miles seems like kind of a lot compared to just 3 St. Lawrence crossings in nearly 400 miles northeast of Montreal.
Although with the St Lawrence, other than in Quebec City, I don't really see a need for any other bridges. Simply because there isn't really any large settlements in the areas without a bridge right now. Even then, at the farthest point from any bridge, is a 1 hour drive away to detour using a bridge or ferry.
Quote from: mgk920 on November 02, 2022, 07:06:03 PM
IMHO, the Potomac River has remarkably few really usable crossings in the DC metro area.
Also, there are even fewer usable crossings, between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON and even fewer in the Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, ON area.
The presence of an international border is a factor in the latter two cases. The river is not casually crossed on account of this and while there are relatively few bridges, there is not so much a lack of sufficient available bridge capacity (customs plazas are the rate limiting step)
The Potomac is a more functionally annoying situation, and one which lack of planning has made effectively unsolvable. There are seven roadway bridges (two for the beltway and five within it), and this was sufficient for the time these bridges were all built because 60 years ago basically no one lived outside the beltway. But then development crept up and down the river outside the beltway and no place for more bridges was ever reserved. So now there's just nowhere to put one without it being unacceptably disruptive to pre-existing development and/or running into Section 4F hell. Not to mention that Montgomery County is adamantly opposed to any new bridges anyway since they don't want to make it easier for people who work in Montgomery County to live elsewhere.
Two very narrow Mississippi River bridges at Memphis should have mic dropped this thread.
Quote from: Road Hog on November 03, 2022, 02:02:58 AM
Two very narrow Mississippi River bridges at Memphis should have mic dropped this thread.
I would not call the I-40 crossing very narrow, but otherwise agreed that there is a lack of crossings in the Memphis area.
Providence only has two bridges only I-195 and the Henderson Expressway. It takes 45 minutes to get from Warwick to Bristol on the other side of the Providence River.
This has been a big challenge in the Sacramento area with the American River. There is a large gap between the Howe Ave/Watt Ave bridges and the Sunrise Blvd. bridge, then a gap between Sunrise Blvd and Hazel Ave, and another gap between Hazel Ave and Folsom. During my 41 years of living in Sacramento, the bridges have been widened, but only two bridges were constructed: The Folsom Blvd Bridge which is in addition to the nearby "so old it's historic" Rainbow bridge, and the Folsom Lake Crossing bridge which replaced the shutdown after September 11th Folsom Dam bridge. There is a desperate need for an additional bridge between Watt Ave and Sunrise Blvd, but the NIMBYs have blocked even the mention of any plans for an additional bridge. As a result, both Watt Ave and Sunrise Blvd bridge are so notorious for their congestion during commute times that a 20 minute drive can easily turn into a hour-long crawl.
My experiences with the Sunrise Blvd bridge congestion deeply influenced my home purchase decision when I moved to Dallas to the point that I was focused on one neighborhood that was extremely close to my workplace and, as a bonus, near a DART Light rail station as well. And, I prefer my walk to work even though it takes longer than the two minute... most of it waiting to turn left.