One of Delaware’s most iconic landmarks reached a major milestone.
The one billionth toll customer crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge at noon on Tuesday. The lucky customer was Jeff Wright, a computer consultant from Wildwood, New Jersey. Wright was greeted at the toll booth by Governor Markell and Delaware River and Bay Authority officials who presented him with a framed picture of the bridge, a medallion, and an undisclosed amount credited to his E-Z Pass account.
Highlights from the one billionth toll customer crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Highlights from the one billionth toll customer crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
[flashvideo file=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bridge.flv image="none"/]
Wright, who comes to Delaware between 2 and 3 times a week for work was confused when authorities first flagged him down.
"I thought I was in trouble," said Wright with a laugh. Wright was quickly relieved when he was told that he was the billionth customer. "It's my fifteen minutes of fame."
The idea of honoring The Delaware Memorial Bridge’s one billionth customer was the idea of Toll booth collector Jim Tobin.
"I was watching on the History Channel about the Golden Gate Bridge and the different things about it and the milestones that they had," said Tobin, who has been working for the Delaware River and Bay Authority for almost 7 years. "(I) got to thinking, why not us?"
It was then left to University of Delaware junior Steven MacDonald, a summer intern at the Delaware River and Bay Authority, to do most of the number crunching necessary to determine when the billionth customer would arrive.
“I got all of the annual reports from 1951 to 2011 and compiled numbers that tolls and E-Z Pass had," said McDonald who then filled in the blanks with last year's numbers. "I used last year's numbers because it was a similar economy."
The bridge was completed in 1951 and originally consisted only of what is now the New Jersey bound span.
Due to higher than projected traffic a second span was added in 1968. More than 80,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day.