$4 toll? It's a bargain

Motorists irate about tolls possibly rising to $4 on the Ben Franklin and other Delaware River Port Authority bridges should consider the round-trip cost when the Franklin bridge opened in July 1926: 50 cents, or $6.12 in today’s dollars.

Using three or more horses with your carriage cost 80 cents, or the equivalent of $9.79 today. The toll for leading your horse, mule, cow, hog or sheep was 40 cents, or $4.90.

The Delaware River Bridge, as it was called, was a joint project between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. New Jersey favored tolls, while Pennsylvania and Philadelphia wanted the bridge “to remain forever free.” To get the bridge built, Pennsylvania relented.
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Why are they still charging tolls for this bridge?

The tolls paid in the last 82 years haven’t paid this off yet? How much money that is now being collect for tolls actually goes for bridge maintenance? How much goes to pay the salaries of the toll-takers and others who don’t actually keep the bridge safe?

It's a one-way toll

IIRC, the newer bridges now have one-way tolls, so the $4s is a bit misleading.

pd

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