Delaware getting its money's worth

The fee to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge rose from $3 to $4 on July 1. The twin suspension bridges connect the Delaware Turnpike, or Interstate 95 in Delaware, on the south side with the New Jersey Turnpike on the north side, as well as a series of other major routes.

The Delaware Turnpike is the most expensive per-mile toll road in the country: It costs $4 to cross just eight miles. “That much more than pays for that piece of pavement,” said John Gilmour, a College of William and Mary government professor. “Delaware is just using the fact that people” — like Washingtonians — “have to go across Delaware to get places, to extort money from them to pay for all their transportation expenses.”