Israel LaFleur Bridge

Israel LaFleur Bridge
Israel LaFleur Bridge
	Spanning Calcasieu Ship Channel and Prien Lake
Coordinates	30°12′06″N 93°16′49″W / 30.2017°N 93.2804°W
Carries	I-210
Crosses	Calcasieu Ship Channel
Locale	Lake Charles, Louisiana
Official name	Israel LaFleur Bridge
Other name(s)	I-210 Bridge
Maintained by	LDOT
History
Opened	1962
Statistics
Toll	Free both ways
Location

The Israel LaFleur Bridge is a concrete pillar vehicular bridge located in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana. The bridge was built in 1962 as part of Interstate 210 (Lake Charles Loop; a highway expansion that travels over the Calcasieu River, south of Lake Charles, and back up to Interstate 10). It is named after Israel LaFleur, who spearheaded the project to build it.^[1]

The bridge is about 8,500 feet (2,600 m) long, and 140 feet (43 m) high. It is one of the tallest structures in southwest Louisiana.

The bridge survived the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Rita. The bridge's structural rating is 96%, even after surviving two major hurricanes and being sixty years old.^{[citation needed]}