| Bridge Name: | Peter Guice Memorial Bridge |
| Named For: | Peter Guice |
| Crosses: | Green River |
| Locale: | Henderson County |
| Owner: | NCDOT |
| Maint: | NCDOT |
| Design: | Steel continuous, girder and floorbeam system |
| Length: | 1050feet |
| Width: | 28feet |
| Height: | 225feet |
| Complete: | 1968 |
| Cost: | $3.8 million |
| Open: | 1972 |
| Traffic: | 44,500[1] (2019) |
| Replaces: | Howard Gap Rd Toll Bridge II |
| Coordinates: | 35.2739°N -82.3739°W |
| References: | [2] [3] [4] |
The Peter Guice Memorial Bridge consists of dual two-lane automobile bridges carrying I-26/US 74 across the Green River, located between East Flat Rock and Saluda, in Henderson County, North Carolina. Surpassed only by the Phil G. McDonald Bridge in West Virginia and the Emlenton Bridge in Pennsylvania, it is the third-highest bridge carrying an Interstate Highway in the eastern United States at 225feet tall. Each bridge is 1050feet long and 28feet wide, with two 12feet travel lanes and 2feet shoulders. In 1993, both bridges were rehabilitated after missing welds and poor welds were found in the structures.
As of July 2018, both bridges are rated structurally deficient and functionally obsolete in the National Bridge Inventory.[5] A major rehabilitation project for the bridges is scheduled to begin in 2021.[6]
The bridge is dedicated to the memory of Peter Guice, who built the first toll bridge over the Green River in 1820; it replaced a hazardous ford along Howard Gap Road. An unrecorded flood washed out the toll bridge, but was replaced by his son; the second toll bridge was destroyed by flood in 1916. The current bridge is located high above where the former bridges once stood.[7]