Calcasieu River Bridge

The Calcasieu River Bridge, officially named the World War II Memorial Bridge in June 1951 is a trough truss located on Interstate 10 between Lake Charles, Louisiana and Westlake, Louisiana. It was the only major bridge in Lake Charles, until the construction of the Lake Charles Loop with the I-210 Calcasieu River High Bridge began in 1962, with an average annual daily traffic (2009) of 51,800. The bridge has a vertical clearance of 135 feet (41 m). It was built under the administration of Gov. Earl K. Long and opened in 1952. It has decorative iron work with crossed guns integrated into the railings. The I-10 Bridge was originally built as the U.S. Hwy 90 bridge and later was grandfathered into Interstate 10. The bridge was never intended to be an interstate bridge, and when the federal government took it over, they promised to replace the bridge at a later date.The bridge has been rated structurally deficient by the Department of Transportation but was declared safe by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD). There are plans to replace the bridge and improve the Westlake exit.HistoryConstruction began in 1949, as part of U.S. Route 90 in Louisiana, and was completed in 1952. The bridge was built before the Interstate Highway System, and included pedestrian walkways that are forbidden on interstate highways, so the bridge is also rated as functionally obsolete. Before the bridge was built, U.S. 90 traffic crossed the Calcasieu River over a draw bridge located by the Port of Lake Charles on Shell Beach Drive, which runs around the south side of the lake. The remnants of the old bridge can still be seen at the end of Shell Beach Drive by the Port.