Oldtown Low-water Toll Bridge
This is an image set within the Bridgemeister collection.
| Bridge: | Oldtown Low-water Toll Bridge |
| Location: | Oldtown, Maryland and Green Spring, West Virginia, USA - North Fork Potomac River |
| Coordinates: | 39.537702 N 78.613186 W |
| Maps: | Acme, GeoHack, Google, OpenStreetMap |
| Image Set Contributor: | J.J. Prats |
| Date of Images: | June 7, 2006 |
| Related Image Lists: | All from J.J. Prats All in Maryland All in West Virginia All in USA All Other Bridge Types |
| Credit: | Photo by J.J. Prats. Please do not reuse without permission. |
J.J. writes: "View is from West Virginia looking towards Maryland. Toll is collected on the Maryland side, up the bank a ways so that the toll shack is not under water too often. Toll is 50 cents each way. It is perhaps the last privately owned toll bridge in the country. This one-lane wooden-decked bridge without railings is used to cross the Potomac River between Maryland and West Virginia, but only when the water doesn't top it. It is said that 'an Act of Congress' prevents other bridges from being built within 5 miles upstream or downstream." I did some research on privately owned toll bridges and found the Federal Highway Administration's site has a list of bridge and tunnel toll facilities in the U.S. and lists 17 privately-operated toll bridges. Best known of those privately-operated bridges, to visitors of this site, may be the Newell Bridge.
