Built to accommodate the rising volume of cross-river commuter traffic from the growing West Shore suburbs after World War II, the bridge opened on January 24, 1952 as Harrisburg’s first toll-free span across the Susquehanna.

The new Forster Street soon was traffic congested during the day, desolate at night, and split downtown from midtown Harrisburg, helping both districts into decline.

To accommodate the additional bridge traffic, within a few years the Cumberland Blvd and 32nd Street segments of the Bypass were widened from their original 1940s configuration to create a divided four-lane highway reaching to the southern end of Camp Hill.

Less than a decade after it opened, the continued rise in commuter traffic fueled by suburban growth prompted construction of the Harrisburg Expressway with another multilane span, the John Harris Bridge.

Locally, the John Harris is still often called the “South Bridge,” but the Harvey Taylor’s official name has endured.