Demerara Harbour Bridge

About

The Demerara Harbour Bridge was a 6,074-foot (1, 851 m) long floating toll bridge that crossed the Demerara River, joining Peter's Hall to Schoon Ord, Essequibo Islands-West Demerara. It was commissioned on 2 July 1978, and closed on Oct. 5, 2025. There was a pedestrian footwalk, a raised section for small vessels and a retractor for large vessels. It has been replaced by the New Demerara Harbour Bridge, but will remain until its various sections can be used to span various inland rivers. The bridge has 61 spans. A high-level span provided a horizontal clearance of 32.0 metres (105.0 feet) and a vertical clearance of 7.9 metres (26 feet) to let small craft pass at all times. To let large craft pass, two retractor spans retracted fully once per day to leave a horizontal clearance of 77.4 metres (254 feet). The number vehicles transiting per day was approximately 9,000 in 2015, and 14,000 as of 2017. Although the bridge was designed to last ten years, it was so successful that it inspired the Berbice Bridge, completed in 2008.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.