A fifty-one-mile divided highway built over more than a decade (1987–2003), DE 1 was a project of extraordinary intricacy and expense. Intended as a “relief route” for the benefit of beachgoers, it had the side effect of triggering boundless sprawl. Houses along the corridor multiplied by 42 percent in the 1990s alone. The striking, 4,650-foot bridge over the canal—already considered a landmark in the state—was the work of a Florida-based firm known for its Sunshine Skyway Bridge, St. Petersburg (1987), which, as here, used cable-stay technology: cables radiate out from tall concrete pylons. With a span of 750 feet, the Delaware bridge is a little more than half the size of its Florida predecessor. It is the longest concrete span in the northeast United States.