Cooper River Bridges

The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) completed the single most expensive construction project in state history on July 15, 2005 when the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge opened to traffic over the Cooper River at Charleston. The 2.5-mile eight-lane bridge replaces two aging cantilever spans (the 1929-opened Grace Bridge and 1966-opened Pearman Bridge) that spanned both Towne Creek and the Cooper River between the city of Charleston and the town of Mount Pleasant. The bridge design features a 1,546 long main span, the longest such span in all of North America and signature diamond shaped towers that reach 572 feet into the air. Construction took four years to complete at a cost of $632 million.2