Crosses Saint Lawrence River Total length 13,679 m Location Wellesley Island | Construction started 30 April 1937 Opened 1937 | |
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Carries 2 lanes of I-81 and Highway 137 Locale Wellesley Island, New York, United States to Hill Island, Ontario, Canada Official name The Thousand Islands Bridge system Maintained by Thousand Islands Bridge Authority Design suspension & truss bridge Address 860 137 HWY, FRONT OF LEEDS AND LANSDOWNE, ON, Canada Similar Boldt Castle, Thousand Islands, Wellesley Island, Rainbow Bridge, Blue Water Bridge | ||
Driving a truck over the thousand islands bridges
The Thousand Islands Bridge (French: Pont des Mille-îles) is an international bridge system over the Saint Lawrence River connecting northern New York in the United States with southeastern Ontario in Canada. Constructed in 1937, with additions in 1959, the bridges span the Canada–US border in the middle of the Thousand Islands region. All bridges in the system carry two lanes of traffic, one in each direction, with pedestrian sidewalks. The actual international border bridge crossing is a set of two parallel 90 ft (27 m) long bridges between Wellesley Island in the United States and Hill Island in Canada.
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Thousand islands bridge
StructureEdit
Thousand Islands Bridge system is a series of five bridges that span parts of the St. Lawrence River, ultimately connecting both banks. The southern end of the bridge connects with Interstate 81 and the northern end of the bridge connects to Highway 401 via Highway 137. There is also an interchange with the Thousand Islands Parkway on the Ontario side.
AdministrationEdit
The bridge system is administered by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority, a New York State public benefit corporation, whose seven board members are appointed by the Jefferson County Board of Legislators. Four board members are US citizens and three are Canadian citizens. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority also maintains and administers Boldt Castle.
Tolls are paid only by cash, or with a Commuter Discount Fare Card, which is good for either 16 trips (US$20.00) or 72 trips (US$32.00). No electronic toll collection transponders are currently offered or accepted, although the Bridge Authority has joined the multi-state E-ZPass consortium and is planning to introduce ETC in 2017. The Bridge Authority offers sales of transponders of Florida's SunPass, for the convenience of Canadian travelers to Florida.
HistoryEdit
From ground-breaking ceremonies to completion, the entire Thousand Islands Bridge system took sixteen months to complete, which was ten weeks ahead of schedule. The total cost was $3,050,000. In the early years of its operation, the bridge usually had 150,000 vehicle crossings annually. Today, however, annual crossings exceed 2,000,000 vehicles.