Fred Hartman Bridge, Cable-stayed bridge in Baytown, USA.

The Fred Hartman Bridge is a cable-stayed crossing over the Houston Ship Channel that links Baytown and La Porte along State Highway 146. Two slender towers support eight traffic lanes suspended above the waterway.

Announced in October 1985, the bridge was designed by Greiner Engineering and built from 1987 by Williams Brothers and Traylor Brothers. Steel fabrication delays, including a contractor bankruptcy in 1993, pushed the opening to September 27, 1995. It replaced the Baytown Tunnel, removed after the Houston Ship Channel was deepened to 45 feet; the tunnel's last section came out on September 14, 1999.

The bridge is named for Fred Hartman (1908–1991), editor and publisher of the Baytown Sun from 1950 to 1974. He died in 1991, four years before the crossing opened, so he never saw it completed. The 1995 opening ceremony was hosted by the Baytown and La Porte chambers of commerce, with George W. Bush and Miss Texas 1995 among the guests.

The crossing is part of a busy highway with no pedestrian access or designated parking areas. Drivers experience open views over the channel and industrial facilities along the shore while crossing.

The bridge is named for Fred Hartman, editor and publisher of the Baytown Sun from 1950 to 1974. He died in 1991, four years before the September 27, 1995 opening ceremony, which George W. Bush attended. The crossing replaced the Baytown Tunnel, whose last section was lifted from the channel on September 14, 1999.