HARTFORD — Last summer, the rotating bridge that carries trains over the Norwalk River twice became stuck in the open position, bringing train service on the busiest rail corridor in the country to a halt.

The 118-year-old Walk Bridge has been neglected so long that it needs to be replaced.

Aging infrastructure like the Walk Bridge is one of the reasons Congress must pass a multi-year federal transportation bill, U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy told a crowd Thursday morning.

"Every now and then, it doesn't open when we need it to open or close when we need it to close," Murphy said. "You could look at that two ways: You could look at that with a pessimistic lens — a bridge that doesn't open — or you could look at it optimistically, that it's a miracle a 110-year-old bridge ever opens."

Murphy was one of more than 100 people, including elected officials, transportation advocates and construction workers, who attended the Stand Up 4 Transportation Day rally Thursday at Union Station.

Similar rallies were held in more than 140 municipalities nationwide, in an effort to drum up support for a bill that would provide states with federal funding for transportation projects over several years.

Supporters say long-term federal funding is necessary to repair, maintain and adequately expand America's public transportation, roads, bridges, ports and rail systems.

"Folks, you can't run a 21st century economy on 20th century infrastructure," said U.S. Rep. Elizabeth H. Esty, D-5th District, who is a member of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

According to 2013 data from the Federal Highway Administration, about 35 percent of the 4,218 bridges in Connecticut are considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Also, the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 report found that driving on roads in need of repair costs Connecticut motorists $847 million a year in extra vehicle repairs and operation costs — $294 per motorist.

Top priorities in Connecticut include replacing the infamous Mixmaster in Waterbury, improving rail infrastructure, fixing bottlenecks on Interstate 95 and investing in mass transit, officials said.

Murphy said that providing adequate transportation funding should be a bipartisan effort.

"This is construction workers, labor, management, environmental groups, private sector and public sector coming together to say that we can do something amazing if we invest in transportation," Murphy said. "We can save our economy, address our liabilities and, by the way, put a couple thousand people back on the job."

The country hasn't had a multi-year transportation funding bill since 2012. By funding only one year at a time, Congress has limited the ability of states to invest in transportation infrastructure, causing delays and ultimately costing taxpayers, officials said.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation's five-year capital plan assumes flat federal funding for highway and transit projects, even though construction costs increase every year.

The most recent multi-year transportation funding bill, called Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), authorized funding from 2012 through September 2014. Since then, federal funding for transportation has been inconsistent.

"MAP-21 was passed as a stopgap for a few years, and since last year it's just been kept going by extending it a few months at a time," said Laura McMillan, communications director for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "That absolutely makes it difficult for states to plan long-term projects — and of course most transportation projects are long-term."

Legislators hope to pass a new funding bill before current transportation funding expires on May 31.

Murphy said funding a multi-year transportation bill depends on finding new sources of revenue for the Highway Trust Fund. Most federal highway funding comes from the federal gas tax, which hasn't been raised since 1993.

"We cannot any longer afford to run a 2015 transportation system on 1993 dollars," Murphy said.

U.S. DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx has proposed a bill, called the Grow America Act, that budgets $478 billion in funding over six years for highway and transit projects. It allocates $317 billion for highways, which is an increase of 26 percent over current levels, along with $115 million for transit projects, a 79 percent increase.

The House and Senate are drafting separate multi-year transportation funding bills.