Qualla: Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge

Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. The drivers waiting behind the warning gates on the morning of February 24, 1977, saw the ship first. They were sitting in their cars, the lift span raised above them so the tanker could pass underneath, when the 523-foot Marine Floridian veered out of the channel and came straight at the bridge. Six emergency blasts on the ship's horn. Engines into reverse. Anchor dropped. None of it mattered. The drivers got out of their cars and ran for the south end. The ship hit the north tower with thousands of tons of momentum. One section of bridge deck and two unoccupied vehicles tumbled into the James. No one died — but the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge would not carry traffic again for twenty months.

Image: Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge: A Signer's Bridge

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bridge is named for Benjamin Harrison V, who signed the Declaration of Independence and served three terms as Governor of Virginia. He lived two miles west, at Berkeley Plantation — the same plantation where William Henry Harrison was born in 1773 and Benjamin Harrison (the t...

Image: Ser Amantio di Nicolao at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge: The Day the Ship Hit

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. On February 24, 1977, the small World War II-surplus tanker Marine Floridian was heading downriver from Allied Signal in Hopewell when her rudder steering gear failed. The drawbridge was raised in anticipation of her passage; cars waited. The ship slid out of the channel, headed ...

Image: Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge: What Twenty Months Without a Bridge Looks Like

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The next downstream crossing was the James River Bridge, 130 miles of additional driving. The next upstream crossing was Interstate 95 at Richmond, fifty miles away. The Jamestown Ferry, thirty-five miles downstream, was already at capacity. For commuters between Charles City Cou...

Image: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge: Peregrines on the Towers

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. Today the bridge's most famous tenants are not human. In partnership with the College of William & Mary's Center for Conservation Biology, VDOT installed nesting boxes on the high steel of the Harrison Bridge and nine other Virginia bridges. Peregrine falcons — the world's fastes...

Image: Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge: What You See From Above

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. The bridge crosses the James at a sharp bend. From altitude that bend explains the 1977 accident — the channel curves at the bridge, making it hard for any large ship that loses steering to recover before reaching the structure. The lift span shows as a distinct rectangular secti...

Image: Will Fisher from Richmond, VA, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0