Veterans Memorial Bridge is a fixed-span roadway crossing of the Danvers River carrying U.S. Route 1A

U.S. Route 1A

U.S. Route 1A is the name of several highways found in the United States:-Wake and Franklin counties, North Carolina:U.S. Route 1A in Wake and Franklin counties, is located north of Raleigh and in two separate segments....

 between Salem, Massachusetts

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

 and Beverly, Massachusetts

Beverly, Massachusetts

Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...

. It opened in 1997 replacing a previous historic steel bridge at the same location.

History

The Veterans Memorial Bridge is located at the site of the historic Essex Bridge. Originally a ferry crossed the Danvers River at the location from 1636 to 1788, then the first bridge was built. Rebuilt several times until 1896 when a steel pony truss swing bridge with trestle approaches was constructed by the county. It was constructed by the King Bridge Company

King Bridge Company

The King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company was a late-19th-century bridge building company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by Zenas King in 1858 and subsequently managed by his sons, James A. King and Harry W. King and then his grandson, Norman C. King, until the mid-1920s...

 of Cleveland, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. Part of the cost of the 1896 bridge was covered by the Bay State Street Railway Company, which operated on a track over the bridge until 1934. The trolley tracks were later removed.

By the early 1990s the steel bridge had deteriorated to a point where it had to be demolished. It was replaced by the current span in 1997.

Current span

The Veterans Memorial Bridge contains seven main spans with the longest measuring 220 feet. It also contains four approach spans ranging between 60 and 160 feet in length. The current bridge is typical of MassDOT's preference for use of weathering steel for steel bridges.