Vernita Bridge, State road bridge over Columbia River near Desert Aire, Washington.

Vernita Bridge is a highway bridge that crosses the Columbia River connecting Grant County and Benton County in Washington state along State Route 24. The structure carries traffic across the river at a point where the landscape transitions between different agricultural and semi-arid regions.

The bridge opened in 1965 to replace a ferry service that had operated since 1901. The area was evacuated starting in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, leading to the closure of the earlier crossing.

The name Vernita comes from the ferry landing opened here in 1901, which used oars and river current instead of an engine. A cable ferry replaced it in 1908 and ran until the 1943 evacuation for the Manhattan Project; the state revived a public ferry in 1957 until the bridge opened in 1965.

The bridge carries State Route 24 over the Columbia about 10 miles (16 km) south of Desert Aire and Mattawa, inside Hanford Reach National Monument near the Hanford Site. Approach from SR 24 on either bank; the crossing links Grant County on the north with Benton County on the south.

The weather station near the bridge holds Washington's record for the highest July temperature, 118 °F (48 °C), set in 1928. It also recorded the state's hottest April reading, 103 °F (39 °C), in 1934, one of only two Aprils above 100 °F there, the other in 1926.