Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is a lift bridge that carries the US 1 Bypass over the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine. The bridge is a double deck truss bridge, with the US 1 Bypass road deck above and a railroad bed below.

The bridge features two separate movable spans. While the main lift span and its towers are the obvious primary moving feature, the second moving span is only apparent to water and rail traffic. On the north side of the bridge, the first non-trussed section of rail bed lifts up and moves south as a retractable bridge, coming to rest on top of the rail tracks inside the truss. This creates a waterway large enough for most recreational boats to pass through without the need for interruption of automobile traffic on the bridge.

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Photo 210, Oct 2001

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Completed in 1940, the bridge is the second to carry motor vehicle traffic between Maine and New Hampshire at Portsmouth, and replaced a river crossing dating from 1822. The bridge was the direct result of the work of the Maine-New Hampshire Interstate Bridge Authority, which had been formed in 1937. The major goal of the bridge project was to relieve congestion in downtown Portsmouth and Kittery, where US 1 crossed the river via the Memorial Bridge, which had opened in 1923.

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Photo 213, Oct 2001

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Memorial Bridge in background

From 1960 until 1972, the bridge, along with the US 1 Bypass north of the Portsmouth Circle, filled a gap in Interstate 95, which had been designated along both the New Hampshire Turnpike and the Maine Turnpike. Although most of the Bypass is four lanes wide, the bridge itself originally had only a three-lane roadbed, with traffic on the center lane switching direction depending on load (the bridge has since been reduced to just two lanes). This, combined with being a drawbridge, placed the bridge far below Interstate highway standards. The turnpikes, and therefore I-95 in the two states, did not directly connect until the opening of the Piscataqua River Bridge and the extensions of I-95 leading to it in the early 1970s.

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Photo 215, Oct 2001

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Wellington Kent cargo boat going downriver. Rt 95 bridge in background

The railroad track that runs across the bridge was originally part of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and connected to South Berwick via an easement that is now Rt. 236. The bridge replaced a railroad trestle that was located just upriver. The trestle collapsed on September 10, 1939, sending the engine and baggage car to the bottom of the river, where they remain. It had been weakened when a caisson used in the construction of the new bridge dragged its anchor cables, which pulled out several of the trestle's bents.

Currently, the tracks lead only to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and are used for the transportation of nuclear materials.

Photo 597, July 2002

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Department of Defense Patrol boat. Rt 95 bridge in background

Photo 67, May 2003

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Tanker and tugs passing under drawbridge. Note that the tanker is so wide that the front two tugs had to disconnect and go through the bridge first.

Photo 85, May 2003

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Bridge stuck partway up

Photo 37, July 2003

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

tall ship Jeanie Johnston from Ireland going under the bridge

Photo 14, Aug 2003

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Great Bay Cruise

Photo 60, Oct 2003

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Great Bay Cruise

Photo 60a, Oct 2006

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

from dock of Thomas Laighton

Photo 199, July 2010

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Photo 09a, July 2010

View of other two bridges from middle of Memorial Bridge: Sarah Mildred Long Bridge (aka Middle Bridge, Rt 1 Bypass), and Piscataqua River Bridge (Rt 95).

Photo 56, Sept 2011

Middle Bridge

Photo 05, March 2012