Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-19

Although operating costs of the
Camden-P Philadelphia Bridge. opened
July /. 1925, amount TO $1,000 a day,
the joint commission, which is in
charge Of the management Of the
bridge has been enabled 10 distribute
S946 $50 in New Jersey. Pennsylvania
and Philadelphia and is planning a
further distribution of 100000 at the
end of the first year Of operation, so
heavy has been the traffic over this
structure. the largest suspension
bridge In the world, At the present
rate Of toll collection, allowing for
natural increase in the traffic, the
bridge will he paid for within 10
years instead Of in 10 as originally
estimated. in the opinion Of the COM
mission.
The volume of traffic has been so
great that during the first 10 months
of operation more than 100000 cars
above the original estimate for the
entire year had passed over the
structure. When the bridge was
opened. official estimates placed the
traffic for the first year Il 6.050,000
vehicles. At the end Of April the
count showed that 6,292 ,653 vehicles
had crossed.
Greater Volume Possible.
"A
100000 a. month. the volume of actual
traffic is certain to surpass the esti-
mated figures by at least 100000 at
the close of the year. and as May and
June are heavy months for automo-
mile travel, the excess by July / is
likely to be close to 100000, strik-
ing illustration of the enormous
growth Of highway transportation.
Traffic for the second year origt-
nally was estimated at 6.550,G00 cars.
The experts have revised the figures
and now say that no fewer than
| 7 500 900 vehicles will cross during the
year 1928,
Despite the heavy flow of traffic, the
bridge is accommodating less than
one-third of the load which 1t could
| carry without difficulty, bridge off1clats
say. Camden Bridge is the largest
suspension bridge in the world. but III
handles far less traffic than the small
| err East River bridges of New YORK
| City.
Joseph X. Costello. manager of the
| structure, now is making plans LOT
| Summer traffic. His biggest problem
will be to get the traffic off the bridge
| into PHILADELPHIA as fast as possible.
| Philadelphia has taken no steps to
provide adequate bridge approaches.
| and is said to be far behind Camden
|
| and New Jersey in that respect.
Approach Cost S6,0O0.000.
| New Jersey prepared for the open
| ing of the bridge by creating a bridge
| approach system costing S6.000,000.
| Camden also widened many of it's city
streets. The State highway program
| is not yet complete, but on July an
| important link, the northern section
| fex1,x G ref g
suburbs of Camden in a semi-circle,
will be thrown open for traffic. This
| together with the Bridge Entrance
| Road connecting with the Crescent
| Boulevard, is expected to eliminate
| the traffic congestion on the Camden
side.
| Traffic for the first six months. end
| ed December 30. 1926, shows that the
! passenger car traffic alone more than
| equaled the estimates for all traffic.
/ The statistics are;
| Total estimated traffic. ..........3 ,2S5.000
| Total actual traffic. ............4.1 Isl .6Sl
Passenger cars .........'..' %, r. '92o
Motor buses ....'........ 500 ,o55t
Bicycles and miscellaneous vehicles I44,472
| That the bridge is not carrying all
| the traffic across the river is shown
| by the report of the Philadelphia &
| Camden Ferry Co. for the five months
ended November 30 1926. In that
period the ferries transported 1,12S.-
| 568 vehicles. The drop in ferry traf-
| f1c was severe. In June, 1926, the
vehicles numbered sag ,SS4. In July,
after the bridge was opened, ferry
traffic dropped to 25S.013. BY No
vemher it had decreased to 1929.
1t has continued to fall, although it
is expected to pick up somewhat in
| the Summer, when motorists find
their passage across the bridge inn
peded by bad approaches on the Phila-
delphia side.
OF the approximate total of the first
years profits of $1,750, 900. the Della
ware River Bridge Joint Commission
will award half, or 1915 600, to New
Jersey as her share. The remainder
goes in equal shares of S4s7, 500 to
| Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.
The greatest surprise to the experts
has been the heavy bus traffic. APP
proximately 90 per cent of the bridges
revenue has been derived from that
'source. In April 900 BUSES cross
ed the bridge. paying $4,000. The av-