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Unique Toll Bridge in Sussex County, N.J., Owned by Family.
Byline: Brian Kladko
Feb. 22--Paying 75 cents to cross Dingmans Bridge is more tolerable than a toll was ever meant to be.
Stopping to pay is hardly a drag on one's momentum, because the speed limit on the narrow, wood-covered span across the Delaware River, at Sandyston Township in Sussex County, is a mere 15 mph. There is no tollbooth -- a collector stands in the middle of the road, making the transaction a little more personal.
And the money, while not destined for a charitable cause, doesn't get sucked up by a bureaucracy. It's actually a family business.
That's right -- the bridge doesn't belong to the government. It's owned by about 50 people, most of them related in one way or another to the three brothers who built the span in 1900.
Its ownership makes the bridge a rarity in this country -- about 16 U.S. toll bridges are privately owned. Two of the others are in New Jersey, in Atlantic County and Cape May County.
Why this bridge remained in private hands, becoming the anomaly that it is, has …
