Upper Township in Cape May County connects with Somers Point via the Great Egg Harbor Bridge on the Parkway.

[4][1] As with the rest of the Garden State Parkway, the bridge is a component of the National Highway System,[5] a network of roadways that are important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

In construction, the bridge project utilized 140 prestressed concrete beams, each 40 feet (12 m) in length, at an individual cost of $640 (equivalent to $7,261 in 2023).

[8] On May 26, 1956, the Great Egg Harbor Bridge opened at a cost of US$4.5 million, completing the Garden State Parkway.

[9] In 2000, after cracking was found in the steel supports on the southbound bridge, construction crews made emergency repairs at the cost of $900,000 (equivalent to about $1,592,000 in 2023).

[1] To address the structural deficiency along substandard roadway, and to maintain a proper evacuation route, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) proposed a replacement bridge as early as 2010.

The NJTA worked with the United States Coast Guard as the lead federal agency for the project due to the crossing over a navigable roadway.

Included in the project was demolishing the Beesley's Point Bridge,[11] built in 1928, and closed to traffic in June 2004 due to damage.

These were the same contractors to build the second phase of the New Jersey Route 52 replacement bridge, between Somers Point and Ocean City.