There has been a crossing of the Thames in Thurrock since medieval times when the nuns of Dartford Priory operated a ferry and the tolls went to the church. In 1820 the ferry ran from the Rising Sun at West Thurrock to the then White Hart at Greenhithe (now the Sir John Franklin). This service was actually run by the two pubs and in the Dartford Museum there is a brass plaque showing the ferry charges.

With a view to getting permission for a Thames Tunnel in Thurrock, West Thurrock council called a meeting with Stifford, Aveley and South Ockendon parish councils and with representatives of North Ockendon in February 1926. The idea was to unite and form an Urban District Council as this would give their plan for a crossing at West Thurrock more chance as they feared that the plan might be hi-jacked by Tilbury. Councillors from Grays and Tilbury felt that this was too much and that such a council would be too arduous to run. Tilbury in the meantime had held meetings with Gravesend with a view to applying for a crossing in Tilbury. Eventually Tilbury decided to go it alone.

Approval was given for a tunnel between Purfleet/West Thurrock and Dartford in 1929. A pilot tunnel began in 1936 was completed in 1938. Due to the war no further progress was made until 1955 when the subject was raised again. The Purfleet Dartford crossing eventually opened in 1963 at a cost of £11,000,000. The toll for cars was 2s. 6d. (12.5p) per crossing and was to be removed when the tunnel was paid for! In 1963 11,000 vehicles a day used the crossing. It was inevitable that when the M25 link in Thurrock was completed in 1972 this would bring increased traffic to the crossing from much further afield. The M25 or North London Orbital motorway, as it was originally called, had been under consideration and was eventually built in sections. The Thurrock section enters the borough where the M25 crosses over Dennises Lane and becomes the A282 where it joins the crossing approach road.