The East Haddam Bridge carries Route 82 over the Connecticut River in Connecticut and was reputed at its 1913 opening to be the longest swing span built.
For more than two centuries, crossing the Connecticut River at East Haddam meant waiting for a ferry. The service had run since 1694, and it took an act of the state to end it. In 1909, a governor’s commission on transportation recommended that a bridge be built between Haddam and East Haddam, and Connecticut redirected the aid that had long subsidized the ferry toward building one instead. The East Haddam Bridge became one of the first in the state paid for from the state treasury, and the precedent it set led the legislature to place all trunk line bridges under the State Highway Department.
Edward W. Bush served as chief engineer, designing the piers and approach roadways, while Alfred P. Boller drew the pin-connected swing span that pivots on its pier to open a channel for river traffic. At its completion it was reputed to be the longest swing bridge of its kind in the world. Construction began in April 1912, and the East Haddam Bridge opened on Flag Day, June 14, 1913, with an address by Governor Simeon E. Baldwin, a seventeen-gun salute, an automobile parade across the new deck, and a concert that drew thousands to the riverbank.
The bridge still carries State Route 82 today, more than a century on. It has been rehabilitated repeatedly, most recently in an $88.8 million project that ran from September 2022 to May 2025 and brought new mechanical and electrical systems, substructure repairs, and a replacement roof. Our new video takes a closer look at the bridge and its history:
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