The man who ‘bridged’ the Delaware
An Army colonel from Texas gave us the Burlington-Bristol Bridge.
Every time Peter Fritz passes a certain Riverside cottage on Delaware Avenue in Riverside — Delanco, N.J., he thinks of a man whose impact on Bucks County is largely forgotten. The American Army colonel built the cottage and nearby Burlington-Bristol Bridge nearly 100 years ago. In its heyday, the span over the Delaware River estuary was a primary link for Bucks motorists seeking summer havens on the New Jersey shore.
Peter, chairman of the Delanco Historic Preservation Advisory Board, reached out to me to write about the visionary.
Lloyd Augustus Cross was born in Texas in 1889. He was the son of a mechanical engineer who built dams and mining projects in northern Mexico. When his family moved to Connecticut, he entered the University of Pennsylvania where he was a record-setting track and field athlete. Graduating with a degree in civil engineering in 1914, he joined McClintock & Marshall, a bridge construction firm in Pittsburgh. He also enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard. In 1917 he deployed to France in World War I as an Army Corps of Engineers captain. He saw action in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and Battle of Meuse Argonne, the second deadliest engagement in American history with the loss of 26,277 lives. It marked the first time the term “D-Day” was used by the Allies, the same designation employed 27 years later for the Allied invasion of France in World War II.
After the war, Cross became chief of the Army Engineers Office in the War Department in Washington. Honorably discharged in 1920, he took a job with American Stores, a supermarket holding company in Philadelphia. Four years later, he and wife Frances Kirk built their unique pebble stone cottage in Delanco opposite Andalusia in Pennsylvania.
About that time, Cross pondered building a bridge between bustling Bristol and Burlington City. The two long had hungered for a bridge to replace a ferry servicing the sister cities. Cross suggested a 4-lane structure connecting Bristol’s Market Street to Burlington Island. It would contain a central lift span to enable ocean-going ships to pass under. A second, shorter span would connect the island to Burlington City. Another option was to build a more expensive four-lane suspension bridge in the same general area but high enough to enable ships to easily pass under with no need for a left span.
Using his influence in Washington, the colonel obtained permission from the War Department to build the privately-funded interstate span. Amid debate over what plan to adopt, Burlington City worried about the demolition of historic structures and businesses. Bristol expressed concern about the proximity of either plan posing a hazard to its Fleetwing aircraft factory and airfield. Ultimately, all agreed to a singular, 4-lane lift span to be built a half-mile downstream from Burlington Island.
Before work could begin however, the collapse of the U.S. stock market in 1929 made it nearly impossible to finance the toll bridge. Not to be denied, Col. Cross secured a $1.5 million loan from his previous employer McClintock & Marshall. He also scaled back the design to a less expensive two-lane span connecting Route 413 in Bristol Township to Reed Street in Burlington. The bridge would incorporate two towers from which massive concrete counterweights would raise a central lift span to clear large ships.
The Burlington-Bristol Bridge would stretch the length of eight football fields. It was completed in just 13 months and opened to traffic on May 2, 1931. Cross managed the bridge until the Army re-activated him at the outset of World War II in 1941. He served in the North Pacific as commander of the 304th Engineers before returning home to his dream cottage in Delanco until his passing in 1972.
Today, the Burlington-Bristol Bridge is managed by the Burlington County Bridge Commission. Historians in Delanco have preserved the colonel’s story. Lloyd Augustus Cross served with the Army Corps of Engineers through two world wars, between which he designed, funded, built and operated the Burlington-Bristol Bridge for 18 years.
Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com
