DRPA is extending the bridge walkway hours until 8PM this summer. Never thought it made sense to close while the sun was still up. Thanks, DRPA!

From their email:

It use to be open until 9pm all the time !

In 2001 and 2002 it was open until 10:00 pm during the summer.

I don' recall it being open until 9:00 pm year round.

Of course it is the most restrictive walkway of it's type in the country (if not the world).

Aww the poor bridge police can't just sleep in a cruiser or write a ticket...they'd actually have to motor a camera station at night.
the horror.

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1) I feel bad for the DRPA police because I think they still don't have a contract.

2) Those new cameras a brutal, they can see the expression on your face.

I suspect during those extra hours the bridge was used very little... it's not like most people want to go to Camden after sunset. That extra hour or 2 until 9 or 10 isn't quite useful enough for the post-game/concert crowd either, even assuming that they'd walk back over the bridge.

At least the Ben Franklin has a walkway, the other DRPA bridges don't (Walt Whitman and Betsy Ross)!

BTW, I like how they blamed the painting for the closure of the north walkway--I don't think that's ever been open since I've lived here. Although I suspect the south walkway is more useful for nearly everyone.

They use to alternate north and south walkway openings.

It's hard to know how much the walkway would be used if it was open 24 hours a day, since it's always closed at night.

And all of the walkways of the East River Bridges in NYC are open 24 hours a day. They also get plowed in the winter, where the DRPA just shuts down the BF Bridge walkway until the snow melts.

The south walkway is the primary walkway. The north one is only open when the south one is closed for construction or painting. The north one was in use extensively a few years ago during the other stages of the bridge painting.

The north walkway is less desirable because it narrows into a cattle chute near the Camden staircase. I've been told this happened when the DRPA ran out of money a few decades ago when they where redecking the walkways.