Cape Fear Memorial Bridge turns 50 years old

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington landmark is turning the big 5-0. The first car drove across the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge on October 1, 1969.

Construction on the bridge began back in 1967. Since it opened, the bridge has been repainted and had new decking and controls put in place.

The bridge has a 408-ft long lift span that can be raised 135 feet for vessels to travel underneath it.

Engineer Adam Britt told WWAY how much longer he thinks they can keep repairing the bridge to keep it in service.

“We feel that we can maintain the bridge continuously as long as we need to,” Britt said. “There will always be maintenance issues that will pop up. When you have a movable structure like we have, this will always bring about issues, but it’s nothing that can’t be maintained continuously as long as we need to have it around.”

Happy 50th birthday to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and hopefully 50 more to come in the future.