crossing for them is the Jamestown Ferry, about upstream. The State Highway and Transportation Commission banned these transportation modes from using the bridge in 1978 "in the interest of safety", due to high traffic and lack of sidewalks. Once the replacement bridge was completed, they returned to the question in 1983, and decided to continue the ban, since the new bridge also had no sidewalks or sufficient recovery area. History The privately owned James River Bridge Corporation was chartered by the General Assembly to build a system of bridges across the James River, Chuckatuck Creek, and Nansemond River, as well as approach roads. On the Newport News end, the bridge simply ended at an intersection with State Route 39/U.S. Route 60 (Virginia Avenue, now Warwick Boulevard). However, a large system of approach roads, including two smaller toll bridges, was built on the Isle of Wight County side. Traffic coming off the bridge reached a Y intersection at Bartlett, at which it could head west over a private approach road past Carrollton to State Route 10 at Benns Church, or head southeast into Nansemond County. The first of the two smaller bridges was the Crittenden Bridge over Chuckatuck Creek (the county line) at Crittenden, and the second, after passing the road to Hobson and Chuckatuck (now State Route 628), was the Nansemond River Bridge over the Nansemond River. The end of the private approach road was at the current intersection of Bennetts Pasture Road (State Route 627) and Lee Farm Lane (State Route 701), where one could go south to State Route 10 (now State Route 337) at Driver. So the James River Bridge System served not only traffic crossing the James River, but also traffic along State Route 10; the 1928 Chuckatuck-Driver Kings Highway Bridge (now State Route 125) competed with the James River Bridge System for this traffic. The $5.2 million James River Bridge was opened on November 17, 1928, by the press of a button in Washington, D.C., where U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, sitting in the Oval Office of the White House, sent an electric signal to lower into place the upraised lift span over the James River channel. Drivers could now choose to cross Hampton Roads on a fixed bridge rather than one of many ferries. The new bridge was narrow by current standards, with a roadway from curb to curb, and railings much less substantial than