Schuylkill Arsenal Railroad Bridge is a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

, two-track, deck truss

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

across the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

between the University City and Grays Ferry neighborhoods of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. It was built in 1885–86 by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

. Today, its swing span has been fixed shut, and the electrical catenary de-energized. The bridge is named for the

Schuylkill Arsenal The Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot, now known as the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, was founded as the Schuylkill Arsenal in 1799. History The Schuylkill Arsenal was built in 1800 to function as a quartermaster and provide the U.S. mi ...

, which operated from 1799 to 1926 near the bridge's eastern approaches. Its western approach runs past the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

's Meiklejohn Stadium. In January 2014, a

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

train carrying crude oil derailed on the bridge.

Original bridge

The 1886 bridge replaced the original Arsenal Bridge, which was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1861 and put in operation on January 27, 1862, as part of the Delaware Extension. It carried a single track over three wrought-iron spans on stone piers and a central center-pivot swing span.

References

{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, bridge = Schuylkill Arsenal Railroad Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = PECO utility tunnel
South Street Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream =

Schuylkill Expressway Bridge The Schuylkill Expressway Bridge, built in 1956 by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and reconstructed and painted blue in 2010, carries the Schuylkill Expressway ( I-76) over the Schuylkill River between West Philadelphia and the ...

, downstream signs = I-76

Bridges completed in 1886 Bridges completed in 1862 Bridges in Philadelphia Railroad bridges in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Railroad bridges Bridges over the Schuylkill River Swing bridges in the United States Truss bridges in the United States CSX Transportation bridges 1862 establishments in Pennsylvania Wrought iron bridges in the United States

Original bridge

See also

References