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Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Rockingham County, New Hampshire, and York County, Maine
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Photos 

Photo taken by John Reidy

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Map 

Street Views 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Vertical lift bridge over Piscataqua River on US 1 Bypass in Portsmouth
Location
Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, and York County, Maine
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1940; rehabilitated 1991
Design
Vertical lift
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 227.0 ft.
Total length: 2,804.3 ft. (0.5 mi.)
Deck width: 29.9 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 16.1 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Also called
Piscataqua River Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+43.08472, -70.76167   (decimal degrees)
43°05'05" N, 70°45'42" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
19/356605/4771729 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Portsmouth
Inventory number
BH 25016 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 12/2011)
Deck condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 5.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2009)
16,000

Categories 

Built 1940 (689)
Built during 1940s (2,798)
Have street view (9,902)
Maine (187)
Movable (1,356)
NR-eligible (3,751)
Navigable waterway (1,449)
New Hampshire (296)
Open (28,317)
Owned by bridge authority (139)
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire (3)
Rockingham County, New Hampshire (24)
Span length 175-250 feet (1,484)
State line crossing (514)
Structurally deficient (16,683)
Total length over 2500 feet (587)
US 1 (60)
Vertical lift (275)
York County, Maine (17)

Update Log 

  • September 5, 2010: New photos from John Reidy
  • April 13, 2010: New Street View added by Nathan Holth
  • October 17, 2009: Updated by C Hanchey: Bridge is called the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

Sources 

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Comments 

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Posted December 6, 2011, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

That span is a rare variation of a retractile type movable span. I call it a variation because the span must be raised a short distance before being rolled back which is unlike most retractile bridges.

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Posted December 6, 2011, by Josh (joshg1 [at] comcast [dot] net)

Not mentioned is that fact the SM Long bridge has a lower deck for the railway (now just a spur to the Naval Shipyard) and that lower deck has a drawbridge, usually left open, under the fixed span on the Maine side under the fixed span.

The attached photo is by JayDuck and copied from the Wikipedia page for the Long bridge.

Uploaded file: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, 104342 bytes

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Posted June 25, 2010, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

Robert,

The National Bridge Inventory lists the "Navigation Vertical Clearance" as 68.9 Feet (41 meters). This may be when the bridge is raised.

Sarah Mildred Long Bridge
Posted June 24, 2010, by Robert W. Miller (millpark99 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

You have done a marvelous job of describing a part of our seacoast culture. Your condition report shows you have a good grasp of important detail that takes this report into the seriously useful data and sets it apart from idle artistic information.

However, there is one critical piece of data not reported. What is the vertical clearance above mean seal level at maximum lift?