The Crescent City Connection (CCC), formerly the Greater New Orleans Bridge (GNO), is a pair of

cantilever bridge A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beam (structure), beams; however, large cantilever ...

s that carry U.S. Highway 90 Business (US 90 Bus.) over the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

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. They are tied as the fifth-longest cantilever bridges in the world. Each span carries four general-use automobile lanes; additionally the westbound span has two reversible HOV lanes across the river. It is the farthest downstream bridge on the Mississippi River. It is also the widest and most heavily traveled bridge on the lower Mississippi; the only other comparable bridges on the Mississippi are in the St. Louis area, those being the Poplar Street Bridge, the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, and the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.

History

What later became known as the Crescent City Connection was the second bridge to span the Mississippi south of

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of countie ...

, the first being the Huey P. Long Bridge, a few miles upriver from the city, and it is the first bridge across the river in Orleans Parish, coterminous with the city of New Orleans. The Mississippi River Bridge Authority, known since 1989 as the

Crescent City Connection Division The Crescent City Connection Division (CCCD) is an agency within the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. The purpose of the CCCD is to plan, construct, operate, maintain and police all Mississippi River crossings in Jefferson Pa ...

(CCCD), began construction of the first span in November 1954, which opened in April 1958 as the Greater New Orleans Bridge. At its opening, the bridge was the longest cantilever bridge in the world although in terms of main span length, it was third, after the

Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder i ...

and the

Quebec Bridge The Quebec Bridge (french: pont de Québec) is a road, rail, and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River between Sainte-Foy (a former suburb that in 2002 became a western area of Quebec City) and Lévis, in Quebec, Canada. The ...

. It carried two lanes of traffic in each direction and spurred growth in the suburban area known as the West Bank (named for its location on the western bank of the river although it is geographically southeast of New Orleans). Construction of the second span began in March 1981. Despite promises that it would be ready for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, it did not open to traffic until September 1988. The second span was originally designated as the Greater New Orleans Bridge No. 2. Both bridges were designed by Modjeski & Masters, Inc. As soon as the new span was opened, the old span was temporarily closed in phases to replace the asphalt-on-steel deck with concrete. All the exits and entrances to the bridge were replaced as well. After the completion of the second span, a public contest was held in 1989 to rename the bridges, which was won by Jennifer Grodsky, of St. Clement of Rome School in Metairie,

, on March 17. The name was selected over the second-place finisher, the Greater New Orleans Superspan, as the name for the spans. Other names voted on for the naming of the spans included: the Crescent City Twins, the Delta Twins, the Crescent City Bridge, the New Orleans Metro Span, the Crescent City Gateway, the Crescent City Twin Span, the Crescent City River Bridge, The Big Easy and the Li'l Easy, the Jazz City Bridge, the Big East Twin Spans, The Pelican Bridge, the Fleur-de-Lis, the Greater Mississippi River Bridge, the Unity Bridge, the Mississippi River Twins, The Friendship Connection, The Pelican Pride, the Riverview Bridge, the Creole Crossing, the Jazz Gate Bridge, the Greater New Orleans Twin Bridges, and the Crescent Bend Bridge. Following this contest, the Louisiana Legislature officially designated the bridges as the Crescent City Connection. (The bridge is commonly known among local

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as , the "Pelican Bridge", due to blue signs at either end that feature a pelican from the state flag.) Beginning in 1989, it was maintained and policed as a toll bridge by the CCCD, a special division of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, although a 2013 vote removed the tolls, and the crossing is now overseen by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety. This separate state police agency used elsewhere in the state, is required because of the high traffic volume and the fact that the two spans briefly cross into Jefferson Parish and the city of Gretna, Louisiana. Since renaming of the twin bridges, some local residents refer to the bridge as "The GNO", in spite of the name change from decades past. Most people refer to it as the "CCC", whereas the proper name of "Crescent City Connection" is used mainly in the media. Due to the Mississippi River's winding course through the New Orleans area (the river is flowing north at the place where the two bridges cross), the bridge contains two wrong-way concurrencies, with the ''east''bound span carrying Business US 90 ''West'', while the ''west''bound span carries Business US 90 ''East''. The Crescent City Connection was the fifth most traveled toll bridge in the United States in 2006, with annual traffic exceeding 63 million vehicles. The bridge is the centerpiece of the Crescent Connection Road Race (CCRR) or Bridge Race as it is locally known, an annual event held on the first Saturday in September following Labor Day. The bridge remains open to vehicular traffic during the race, which only uses the two HOV lanes. The CCRR was originally started as a fundraiser for the bridge's decorative lights. These lights line the top profile lines of both bridges; 64 lights along each string for a total 256 lights.

Hurricane Katrina

As Hurricane Katrina approached the city in August 2005, the CCCD halted toll collections on August 26 to aid in speed of evacuation of the Metro area. Two overhead signs were blown down on the older span, but no other damage occurred to either bridge. After the storm hit on August 29, 2005, much of the east bank of New Orleans flooded severely (see

Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and nav ...

). With all other major and minor highways out of town flooded in both directions, the CCC was the only open highway into or out of the east bank of

Orleans Parish New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Gretna police set up a controversial roadblock on the bridge, refusing passage to evacuees on foot. In the initial weeks following the storm, only emergency personnel and contractors were permitted to use the bridge. The bridge reopened to traffic in mid-September as decreasing water levels on the East Bank of Orleans Parish allowed

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally ...

to reopen and residents to return, but then was temporarily closed to regular traffic again when another evacuation was declared due to

Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the top ten ...

, with the bridge again reopening in late September. Toll collection resumed on October 10 after a six-week suspension, as the revenue was needed to maintain operations. Long lines at the toll booth lanes during non-rush times became common, due to a shortage of toll collectors and electronic toll tags, combined with heavy usage of the bridge due to the many New Orleanians staying with friends and relatives on the Westbank while they worked on gutting and repairing their flooded Eastbank homes.

Proposed Future Interstate 49 designation

In addition to the CCC's designation as Business US 90, the bridge, along with its approach roads, the

Pontchartrain Expressway The Pontchartrain Expressway is a parallel six-lane section of Interstate 10 (I-10) and U.S. Route 90 Business (US 90 Bus.) in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, with a brief stand-alone section in between junctions with these highwa ...

and Westbank Expressway were proposed to also serve as Interstate 910. This proposed designation was federal only and no signs identify the bridge as I-910. This is a temporary designation until

Interstate 49 Interstate 49 (I-49) is a north–south Interstate Highway that exists in multiple segments: the original portion entirely within the state of Louisiana with an additional signed portion extending from I-220 in Shreveport to the Arkansas s ...

is completed between New Orleans and Lafayette, at which time the bridge will be signed as I-49. This proposed designation currently does not have funding to support all the needed infrastructure to accomplish the plan and has largely been dropped.

Tolls

The tolls collected on the Crescent City Connection were defined in Louisiana state law R.S. 47:820.5(B). This law said that from October 1, 1994 through December 31, 2012, tolls were to be collected at a rate of $0.20 per axle for toll tag users, and $0.50 per axle for cash users. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, annual toll collections averaged $20 million. There have been investigations conducted by the Louisiana Office of Legislative Auditor regarding bridge employees pocketing toll revenue for their own use and supervisors falsifying reports to hide the theft. There were citizen action groups who were actively opposing the tolls and their potential renewal in 2012. ''

The Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'' newspaper wrote an editorial recommending that the tolls not be renewed at the end of 2012. The Bureau of Governmental Research, an independent watchdog group in New Orleans, released a detailed financial study on the CCC tolls which showed that the majority of the toll money collected in tolls does not benefit those who pay the tolls. The full BGR report is available as well. On March 5, 2013, toll collection was nullified on the Crescent City Connection due to 19th Judicial District Judge William Morvant's decision to nullify the November 2012 toll vote. A new referendum held on May 4, 2013, defeated the toll extension and officially ended tolls on the Crescent City Connection. The referendum was defeated by 78% of voters in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes.

GeauxPass

The Crescent City Connection introduced toll tags on January 4, 1989, becoming the first toll facility in the United States to use electronic toll collection. The system was originally designed and installed by TransCore, who managed the system until tolls were ended in 2013. However, in the first quarter of 2005, the CCCD awarded a contract to Electronic Transaction Consultants (ETC) Corporation to design, develop and implement a replacement toll collection system. The "GeauxPass" was announced in the summer of 2009 as the new statewide electronic toll system for Louisiana. GeauxPass is compatible with the Crescent City Connection, the LA-1 Tollway, and all future Louisiana toll roads. There are currently over 100,000 tags in operation. To encourage use of the toll tags, the Crescent City Connection offered several benefits to commuters until 2013, including: *Reduced Toll: $0.40 *Dedicated Toll Tag lanes *Use of HOV lanes when carrying Eastbank-bound traffic

Use as a film setting

As an iconic part of the city's skyline, the spans have been a favorite of movie production crews. The HOV lanes are frequently used for filming, as they are not heavily used and are separated from normal traffic by barrier walls. Both spans were briefly closed on April 9, 2006, to allow filming with stunts and pyrotechnics for the

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...

film '' Déjà Vu''. The HOV lanes were used to film a scene in '' 21 Jump Street'' when a truck loaded with chickens explodes. The spans also served as the anchor for the background in most of the outdoor scenes in the film '' A Love Song for Bobby Long''. The spans have been used as a filming location for episodes of '' NCIS: New Orleans''. The spans appeared on the finale of ''

The Amazing Race 32 ''The Amazing Race 32'' is the thirty-second season of the American reality television show ''The Amazing Race''. It featured eleven teams of two competing in a race around the world. The season premiered on CBS on October 14, 2020, and the seas ...

'' as the site of a task where contestants had to jump off one of the beams.

References

External links

Crescent City Connection Division
within the

Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is a state government organization in the United States, in charge of maintaining public transportation, roadways, bridges, canals, select levees, floodplain management, port facili ...

* {{Authority control Bridges in New Orleans Bridges over the Mississippi River Great River Road Intracoastal Waterway Electronic toll collection Bridges completed in 1958 Bridges completed in 1988 Road bridges in Louisiana U.S. Route 90 Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System Former toll bridges in Louisiana Steel bridges in the United States Cantilever bridges in the United States 1958 establishments in Louisiana