The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge
The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge constructed in 2005, and it connects Charleston to Mount Pleasant over the Cooper River. This beautiful, iconic bridge replaced the out-of-date John P. Grace Memorial Bridge double cantilever truss bridge. Everyone who remembers that bridge can relate to the feeling of being a lemming!
The bridge is named after Arthur Ravenel Jr., a retired congressman who raised funding for the bridge. You can catch the bridge in movies like The New Daughter, the title sequence of the TV show Reckless and even Charleston native Darius Rucker’s album cover, Charleston, SC 1966.
With the new bridge's eight-lane construction and tall clearance, larger cargo ships are able to begin importing and exporting through Charleston.
The Ravenel Bridge has a 12-foot-wide and 2.7-mile-long bicycle and pedestrian path, which runs along the southern edge of the bridge overlooking beautiful Charleston Harbor. On the Mount Pleasant side, you can see the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown, that was built during WWII and calls Patriots Point its home.
The bridge is home to the annual Cooper River Bridge Run 10K (6.2 miles) on the first weekend of April. This event brings approximately 50,000 people to the Charleston area. The run starts in Mount Pleasant and finishes in downtown Charleston at Marion Square.
