The Newark Drawbridge, also known as the Morristown Line Bridge, is a

railroad bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

on the

Passaic River Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, ...

between Newark and Harrison, New Jersey. The swing bridge is the 11th bridge from the river's mouth at

Newark Bay Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, t ...

and is upstream from it. Opened in 1903, it is owned and operated by New Jersey Transit.

History

Passaic River Morristown Line bridge jeh

Rail service across the river was generally oriented to bringing passengers and freight from the points west over the

Hackensack Meadows New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to the west o ...

to Bergen Hill, where tunnels and cuts provided access to terminals on the Hudson River. In 1836, the Morris and Essex Railroad established a right-of-way from the west at Orange to Newark, from where it used the

New Jersey Rail Road The United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (UNJ&CC) was a railroad company which began as the important Camden & Amboy Railroad (C&A), whose 1830 lineage began as one of the eight or ten earliest permanent North AmericanList of Earliest Am ...

at Centre Street to cross the river and travel east to its terminal at Paulus Hook on the waterfront in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Kearny Meadows Kearny may refer to: People *Cresson Kearny (1914–2003, American author and researcher **Kearny fallout meter ** Kearny air pump * Eleanor Kearny Carr (1840–1912), American planter and political hostess, First Lady of North Carolina *Jillian ...

and began using the Long Dock Tunnel to Hoboken. In the early 1900s railroad elevated the line approaching the river which previously ran at grade along Division Street in Newark and built the current bridge. Completed in an earlier phase, the bridge was later shifted upstream on the new alignment. In 1945, the Morris and Essex Railroad officially merged into the

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

. DL&W merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960 to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, which was absorbed by

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

in 1976; New Jersey Transit has operated all passenger service since 1983.

Operations

The lower of the long Passaic River downstream of the Dundee Dam is tidally influenced and navigable, but due to the limited maritime traffic the bridge is infrequently required to open. Since 1998 rules regulating drawbridge operations require a 24-hour notice. The bridge at

milepost A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

7.48 is used exclusively by New Jersey Transit rail operations for the Montclair-Boonton Line and both branches of the Morris and Essex Lines, the Morristown Line and the

Gladstone Branch The Gladstone Branch (also known as the Gladstone Line) is a commuter rail line operated by NJ Transit from Gladstone station, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, to either Hoboken Terminal or New York Penn Station. It is one of two branches of ...

. It is situated just east of Newark Broad Street Station, the first stop after the lines travelling west from Hoboken Terminal and Secaucus Junction converge. In 2004, NJT contracted a study to determine the condition of the bridge and to begin long-term planning for its future replacement. In 2009-2010, the bridge underwent $23 million project for maintenance and repairs, funded by the agency and performed by Skanska.

References

External links

*
Passaic River Railroad Bridge
at Bridgehunter.com
William Stickel Memorial Bridge and NJ Transit Railroad Bridge
image by Ronald C. Saari {{Crossings navbox , structure =

Crossings Crossings may refer to: * ''Crossings'' (Buffy novel), a 2002 original novel based on the U.S. television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' * Crossings (game), a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott * ''Crossings'' ...

, place =

, bridge = Newark Drawbridge , bridge signs = NJ Transit , upstream = William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream = Bridge Street Bridge , downstream signs = Bridges completed in 1903 Bridges in Newark, New Jersey Bridges in Hudson County, New Jersey Railroad bridges in New Jersey Swing bridges in the United States Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad bridges NJ Transit bridges Bridges over the Passaic River Steel bridges in the United States 1903 establishments in New Jersey

History

Operations

See also

References

External links