Saint Georges, Delaware

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Georges is an unincorporated town situated on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in New Castle County, Delaware, about midway between the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge (Delaware Route 1) passes just west of town. It is the only cable-stayed bridge in the Delaware Valley and one of the first in the nation. It opened in 1995 as a replacement to the still standing St. Georges Bridge, which carries U.S. Highway 13 over the town of Saint Georges and the Canal. The St. Georges Bridge is in turn a replacement for a former lift bridge that sat in the middle of town. That bridge—built in 1923—was knocked down on January 10, 1939 by the 6,000-ton freighter Waukegan. The freighter lost control, hit the north tower of the bridge and caused it to collapse. Two people died: the bridge tender and the bridge electrician.^[1] One other bridge spanned the C & D Canal before the lift bridge. It was a small pedestrian swing bridge that crossed over the former Saint Georges Locks. It was destroyed when the locks were dismantled during the first widening and deepening (to sea level) of the canal.

Its ZIP Code is 19733.

[edit] References

^ Schmitt, F.E. (January 12, 1939). "Freight Wrecks Canal Bridge" (Google books). Engineering News-Record (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc.) 122 (3). http://books.google.com/books?id=48ojAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved on 2008-12-28.