Cargo ship strikes bridge between New Jersey and Philadelphia, causing traffic backup
Quick Look
- A cargo ship struck the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge over the Delaware River on Thursday, leaving it unable to close and causing major traffic backups between Palmyra, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
- No injuries were reported.
- The vessel, the Singapore-flagged Strategic Alliance, is moored at a Kinder Morgan facility in Bristol, Pennsylvania, where a Coast Guard inspection team is on site.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge is a steel drawbridge carrying Route 73 between Palmyra, New Jersey, and the Tacony neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia. Opened in 1929, it has three lanes of vehicular traffic and can carry up to 76,200 vehicles daily according to 2025 estimates. Federal Highway Administration 2026 National Bridge Inventory data rated the bridge in fair condition overall.
PHILADELPHIA -- A cargo ship struck a bridge across the Delaware River on Thursday, disrupting traffic between Palmyra, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, according to a Pennsylvania lawmaker.
The collision left the 3,659-foot-long (1,115-meter-long) Tacony-Palmyra Bridge unable to close, causing a major backup on the Philadelphia side, state Rep. Ed Neilson said in a news release. No injuries have been reported, he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the cargo vessel is currently moored at a Kinder Morgan facility in Bristol, Pennsylvania, where an inspection team is on site. The Coast Guard identified the vessel as the 591-foot (180-meter) Strategic Alliance, which was built in 2013 and sails under the flag of Singapore.
The drawbridge was open for ships to pass through at the time of the collision around 1:15 p.m., according to the Coast Guard. It remained open afterward because another vessel needed to pass through, and has since come back down. The bridge reopened to traffic with a lane closure Thursday evening, the Burlington County (New Jersey) Bridge Commission Police Department said.
The steel bridge carries vehicles along Route 73 between Palmyra and the Tacony neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia. It has three lanes of vehicular traffic, two into Philadelphia and one into New Jersey. Estimates from 2025 show the bridge can carry as many as 76,200 vehicles each day.
Opened in 1929, the Tacony-Palmyra toll bridge was found to be in “fair” condition, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s 2026 National Bridge Inventory data released this fall.
Inspectors rated the deck of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge as in good condition, the substructure as in fair condition and the superstructure — the component that absorbs the live traffic load — as fair.
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Associated Press journalists Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.
Open Questions
- What caused the cargo ship to strike the bridge?
- What damage did the collision cause to the bridge structure?
- How long will the lane closure remain in effect?
- What are the findings of the Coast Guard inspection at the Kinder Morgan facility?
