Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge (Elizabeth, New Jersey)

USA / New York / Bloomfield / Elizabeth, New Jersey
 railway bridge, 1959_construction, vertical-lift bridge / lift bridge
The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge was built in 1959 to service the B&O Railroad which had numerous industrial and commercial customers on Staten Islands north shore, most notably the Bethlehem Steel shipyard, Protor & Gamble and US Gypsum. This is the largest vertical lift railroad bridge in the world, with a overall truss span of 135 feet in height, 558 feet in length and 2 towers at 215 feet high.

Unfortunately, shortly after its completion the customers it was built to serve began to leave Staten Island and the bridge saw less and less use until 1990 when the bridge was 'abandoned' by its owners and left in the up and locked position.

In 1994, the bridge and north shore railroad were purchased by New York City and plans were drawn up to rehab the system and and reintroduce freight train service to Staten Island in order to reduce truck traffic, mainly on the overloaded Goethals Bridge. Repairs and refitting the entire system was offically completed in June 2006, and the first train to cross the bridge did so in October 2006, 16 years after its abandonment.

Currently, CSX operates about 3 trains a day across the bridge, and mainly hauls trash from the island to landfills. However, the growing prominence of the nearby New York Container Terminal as a major container port for NY/NJ will see further use of the bridge for intermodal container rail traffic.

The increased use of the bridge is not without its problems though, as it's lowering completely blocks marine traffic on the heavily traveled Arthur Kill. Tugboat companies have been successful in mandating that the bridge can only be opened at non-essential 'tide times' when large ships and barges transit the Arthur Kill on either the incoming, outgoing or slack tides.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Kill_Vertical_Lift_Bridge
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°38'16"N   74°11'48"W

Comments

  • The AKRR bridge recording broadcast over VHF13 is the bane of all mariners.
This article was last modified 3 years ago