VIDEO

The Walt Whitman Bridge at 50

With 120,000 cars and cargo-laden trucks passing overhead every day on the Walt Whitman Bridge, the steel-reinforced concrete decking looks as if it could last another half-century. But engineers know it’s time for a major refurbishment of the bridge. And this time, they’ll use a lighter decking of steel plates -- covered with asphalt -- weighing 10 million pounds less. The $100 million-plus project will begin in 2008, one lane at a time, and should be completed in 2011.

DAVID SWANSON / Inquirer Staff Photographer