
Highway construction stalled in Delaware during World War II but rebounded afterward. This was the state's first postwar project. The viaduct eliminated a grade crossing of seven railroad tracks and, connecting with the dual highway through Elsmere, seemed essential to the growth of the suburbs. Both state and federal funds were employed in this project, which pointed to the great freeway-building campaigns of the 1950s–1960s. The upper parts have been rebuilt, but some of the reinforced-concrete piers still show decorative profiles that are almost classical—a historicizing approach that soon would be considered unthinkable on an engineering structure.