Coleman Bridge: Crossing the York River at History's Doorstep

The George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge carries Route Seventeen across the York River between Gloucester Point and Yorktown, linking two counties that together witnessed the final campaign of the American Revolution. Opened in nineteen fifty-two and named for George P.

Coleman, who headed Virginia's highway commission in the early twentieth century, it is the largest double-swing-span bridge in the United States, with two swing spans that open in tandem to let naval vessels pass. The bridge was widened and rebuilt in the nineteen nineties but keeps its original swing-span design. Crossing it today, with Yorktown's bluffs visible on one bank and the open Bay beyond, is one of the signature views on the Virginia Tidewater.