The Calhoun Street Bridge spans 1,274 feet across the Delaware River, connecting Trenton, New Jersey, on its east bank with Morrisville, Pennsylvania, on its west bank. Built in 1884, the intricate iron truss bridge carries motor vehicles on a two-lane roadway and pedestrians/bicyclists in a lane separated from traffic.
The bridge was part of the historical Lincoln Highway, which was planned to be a system of connected roadways from New York to San Francisco. A sign on the bridge notes this important role. Today, the bridge is part of a new transportation system, The Circuit Trails, a developing 750-mile network of interconnected trails centered in the Philadelphia and Camden region and expanding outward.
Near each end of the bridge, you can also connect to two incredible long-distance trails. The Delaware Canal Towpath spans 70 miles, heading north from Trenton to Easton and south to Bristol along a pathway dating back to the historical canal-building era of the early and mid-1800s. On the other shore, the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail forms a V-shaped route with the centerpoint at Trenton; one side heads up to Frenchtown and the other side goes to New Brunswick.
There are a lot of nice trails in the area. This is just a bridge to walk your bike across. Scenic, but not a bike trail.
The D & L Trail passes very close (100 ft.) to the bridge on the Pennsylvania side. A sign on the bridge requires bikes to be walked, and the bridge attendant enforces this rule. On the New Jersey side the trail ends at the east end of the bridge and there is no safe way to traverse the three blocks to the trail along the canal. I guess it is a nice stop while biking the D & L Trail.
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