The locals still remembered the necessity of the bridge building through the Pontchartrain lake in the end of the 19th century. At the development of the project of the first bridge worked Bernard de Mandeville - the founder of the city. He has proposed to build several artificial islands on the lake and then connect them to the bridges. The bridge construction was only 50 years later, 1948 started. Already in 1956 the two directions of the two-lane bridge were opened. The overall investment in the project amounted to more than 55 million US dollars.
The bridge became a good alternative to the ferry service. Now the journey from the north to the south shore of the lake takes about 50 minutes. It must be noted that the ride over the bridge since the opening is chargeable. The money is spent to maintain the technical reliability of the construction. Apart from its impressive size, the Dam Bridge also has an interesting feature. Louisiana state is characterized by the harsh climate and regularly suffers from the natural catastrophes that literally pass the bridge. In the course of their conversation there were several hurricanes, but the construction was never severely damaged.
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