The Mississippi River Bridge Authority began construction on the first bridge in November 1954. The Greater New Orleans (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.

Following a 1989 public contest to select a name for the bridges, a Louisiana Legislative Act officially designated the bridges as the “Crescent City Connection.” The Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) unit, providing the operation, maintenance and policing of the Crescent City Connection, was then designated as the “Crescent City Connection Division” of DOTD

Anyway, thank you for the extra info - I’m updating the post

Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

It’s so long they give up on high res in the middle of it.

Some other cool things to note about this picture:

(1) Just next to the bridge, on the left, you’ll see the HUGE New Orleans Convention Center. And there are plans to expand it even more.

(2) This will seem counter-intuitive, but the area on the left is called the “East Bank” and the area on the right is called the “West Bank.” Because the Mississippi river zigs and zags so much, there are areas on the East Bank that are actually west of the West Bank. If you zoom out enough you’ll see that this has to do with the fact that the river runs more or less West to East near New Orleans, even though the river obviously runs North to South across the country. Also, this is caused by the river’s S shape, which is the reason that New Orleans is called the Crescent City.

(3) Scroll up the picture a little bit and you’ll see Jackson Square, which has been the heart of New Orleans since the City was founded in 1718. On both sides of the square are the Pontalba Apartments which were built in teh 1850s. They are the oldest apartment buildings in the United States.

-Jeff

A long time ago, there was just one old bridge with two way traffic on it. Then they built a new, and much bigger, bridge and split the traffic between the two bridges. The plan was to eventually build two of the big new bridges and demolish the old bridge. However, to my knowledge, the old bridge is still functioning and will be for some time to come.

Incidently, the Placemark: Bellefonte Nuclear Plant / Google Earth is just a bit North along the lake.