Norris Bridge

The Robert Opie Norris Jr. Bridge, also known as the White Stone Bridge, is a truss bridge that spans the Rappahannock River in Virginia, United States and serves as the crossing for State Route 3 over the river between Grey's Point on the Middlesex County side and the town of White Stone in Lancaster County. The span was opened on August 30, 1957, and replaced a ferry service directly West of where the current bridge is located. Commonly known by locals as the White Stone Bridge or Rappahannock River Bridge, this span is a critical crossing between the Lower Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck as the next closest crossing is over 30 miles (48 km) upstream near Tappahannock. Traffic forced to utilize a detour over the upstream crossing could potentially travel over 90 miles (140 km). The Norris Bridge is 11,237 feet (3,425 m) long, and provides a Mean High Water clearance of 110 feet (34 m) under the center span with a channel depth of over 60 feet (18 m). The bridge is maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation. When first opened, the bridge was crossed by just over 1,000 vehicles per day, on average. Tolls were removed from the bridge in 1976, and by 1978 the average daily traffic had risen to over 2,500 vehicles per day. By 2006, traffic counts reached 11,309 vehicles per day but shrank to 6,900 Annual Average Daily Traffic in 2017.