Crescent City Connection

The Crescent City Connection (CCC), formerly the Greater New Orleans Bridge (GNO), refers to twin cantilever bridges crossing over the Mississippi River in the parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard.  The Crescent City Connection ranks the fifth-longest cantilever bridges in the world and the farthest downstream bridge on the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River Bridge Authority began construction on the first bridge in November 1954.  The GNO Bridge over the Mississippi River opened for traffic in April 1958.  Construction on the GNO Bridge No. 2 began in March 1981. Traffic first crossed over the GNO Bridge No. 2 in September 1988. Both bridges have been in continuous operation since 1988 as a unitary bridge facility having a total of eight general traffic lanes plus two Transit / High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.  This configuration provides four lanes from the East Bank (New Orleans) of the river to the West Bank of the river, four lanes from the West Bank of the river to the East Bank of the river, and two reversible HOV lanes on the route US 90 Business.  The Crescent City Connection ranks as the fifth most traveled toll bridge in the United States, with the annual traffic volume exceeding 63 million. The spans are a recent favorite of movie production crews. The HOV lanes are frequently used for filming, as they are not heavily used, and are separated from normal traffic by barrier walls. Both spans were briefly closed on April 9, 2006 to allow filming with stunts and pyrotechnics for the Denzel Washington film Déjà Vu, released in the US on November 22, 2006. The spans also served as the anchor for the background in most outdoor scenes in the film A Love Song for Bobby Long.