The Ben Franklin Bridge turned 100 with thousands of people walking across to celebrate

The Ben Franklin Bridge is no stranger to traffic jams, but for a few hours on Saturday, thousands of sweaty people shuffled shoulder to shoulder to wish the iconic bridge a happy birthday.

Closed to motorists and lined with vendors selling everything from hot sauce to empanadas to Eagles jerseys, pedestrians filed in from both sides of the river, dew point be damned.

“It seems that everyone who didn’t go to the Jersey Shore today is on this bridge,” said Dan Keashen, Camden County’s director of public affairs.

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge turned 100 on July 1, a milestone marked by Saturday’s closure of the span to automobiles. Instead, an estimated 50,000 pedestrians pattered — or peddled their bikes, strollers, or wheelchairs — across its steel to celebrate the newly minted centenarian.

“One bridge, one region, two cities, united in America,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said, hyping up the crowd near the Camden-side toll plaza, where thousands of pilgrims stood side by side.

For a century, the Ben Franklin Bridge has connected Philadelphia and Camden, carrying people to their families, their homes, their stadiums, their workplaces, and back. It has seen industry evolve, from the Model T to self-driving cars, from black-and-white photos to selfie sticks.

One family came to honor Thomas J. Callen, who walked across the bridge on opening day in 1926 as a 19-year-old. His son, Thomas S. Callen, rested beneath a toll booth in Camden, taking a break from the heat.

“I really wanted to do this today for my father,” the younger Callen said.

The Ben Franklin Bridge is also a steadfast channel of commerce, helping shape the region’s economy, said John Hanson, CEO of the Delaware River Port Authority.

“A great bridge,” Hanson said, “is also a kind of public promise. … It insists that we are all connected, that we depend on one another, and that we have obligations to people whom we may never meet.

“The people who designed and built this bridge understood they were not building only for their own time, but for generations.”

The view suspended 185 feet in the air dwarfs the Delaware River. Its murky, tidal swells seemed mellowed from the heights.

“It’s a big bridge,” one passerby said, “but you don’t think how big.”

The wind occasionally whipped as the overcast sun beat down on the Ben’s asphalt. For many, it wasn’t windy enough.

“I could have used more of a breeze,” said Jonathan Young, a Philadelphia resident.

Young sat on a lane divider in Camden, holding an umbrella and sipping a limeade. The heat and humidity hit some of the participants hard, and emergency personnel were on hand to provide care. Some had umbrellas or misting fans. Others were dipping their hands into coolers and rubbing ice on their necks.

While Young was talking, a woman was being rushed down the bridge, into Camden, on a stretcher.

Occasionally, ambulances rushed up a blocked-off lane toward the height of the span.

The pedestrians chitchatted, pushed strollers and wheelchairs, and lapped the 1.8-mile course. Vendors hawked commemorative T-shirts and marveled at the mammoth momentum of American engineering — unencumbered by blaring car horns, tolls, and annoying rush-hour traffic.

Sam Ressin, a Point Breeze resident, said the popularity of the bridge closure was proof that Philadelphia should host even more open-streets events or, ideally, have some streets permanently closed to vehicle traffic.

“There are people as far as the eye can see,” he said. “The people want this.”

» READ MORE: Spanning 100 Years: See how the Benjamin Franklin Bridge was built a century ago

The bridge has previously closed for similar big events: It shut for about 2½ days during Pope Francis’ 2015 visit, and, before then, in 2001 for the bridge’s 75th anniversary.

Manny Estacio, 62, donned his commemorative green foam crown from 2001. That year, Estacio and his then-2-year-old son toured the massive suspension towers, in awe of the art deco craftsmanship. He also reflected on that memorable celebration coming months before 9/11.

It was “one of the last times of relative peace before the chaos of what’s happened since Sept. 11, 2001,” Estacio said.

The Medford Lakes retiree commuted over the bridge for many years, but he said seeing the bridge intimately on foot — unobscured by paned windows and other motorists — was mesmerizing.

Delaware River Port Authority police began stopping eastbound pedestrian traffic into Camden around 1:45 p.m., ahead of the scheduled time. An announcer was also telling the crowd that food vendors would be shutting down at 2 p.m., despite the long lines. That timeline was also earlier than advertised, but it was unclear why the day was shortened.

Strong thunderstorms began to roll through the area about 90 minutes later.

Erica Smith, 51, of Northeast Philadelphia, was descending into Camden and ready to walk back over, despite the heat. Others were taking PATCO or the pedestrian walkway back to Philly.

Smith said she had taken the pedestrian walkway before, but prefers the roadway.

“It’s a little less scary to be in the middle of the road,” she said. “But it’s been a beautiful day, despite the heat. It’s worth it. The bridge is beautiful.”