Peter Guice Memorial Bridge

Peter Guice Memorial Bridge
Coordinates 35°16′26″N 82°22′26″W / 35.27389°N 82.37389°W / 35.27389; -82.37389Coordinates: 35°16′26″N 82°22′26″W / 35.27389°N 82.37389°W / 35.27389; -82.37389
Carries I26 / US 74
Crosses Green River
Locale Henderson County
Named for Peter Guice
Owner NCDOT
Maintained by NCDOT
Characteristics
Design Steel continuous, girder and floorbeam system
Total length 1,049.9 feet (320.0 m)
Width 34.8 feet (10.6 m)
Height 225 feet (69 m)
History
Construction end 1968
Construction cost $3.8 million
Opened 1972
Replaces Howard Gap Rd Toll Bridge II
Statistics
Daily traffic 36,000[1] (2014)
References
[2][3][4]

The Peter Guice Memorial Bridge consists of dual two-lane automobile bridges carrying I-26/US 74 across the Green River, located between East Flat Rock and Saluda, in Henderson County, North Carolina. Surpassed only by the Phil G. McDonald Bridge in West Virginia and the Emlenton Bridge in Pennsylvania, it is the third-highest bridge carrying an Interstate Highway in the eastern United States at 225 feet (69 m) tall. Each bridge is 1,050 feet (320 m) long and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide with two 12-foot (3.7 m) lanes and 2-foot (0.61 m) shoulders. In 1997, the both bridges were rehabilitated.

The bridge is dedicated to the memory of Peter Guice, who built the first toll bridge over the Green River in 1820; it replaced a hazardous ford along Howard Gap Road. An unrecorded flood washed out the toll bridge, but was replaced by his son; the second toll bridge was destroyed by flood in 1916. The current bridge is located high above where the former bridges once stood.[5]

See also

References

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