Delair Bridge

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Delair Bridge
HAER-DelairBridge-pa24.jpg
The Delair Bridge viewed from the Pennsylvania side
Coordinates 39°58′57″N75°04′09″W / 39.98250°N 75.06917°W / 39.98250; -75.06917 (Delair Bridge)
CarriesTrains of New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line and Conrail
Crosses Delaware River
Locale Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken Township, New Jersey
Characteristics
Design Steel Lift Bridge
Total length4,396 feet (1,340 m)
Longest span542 feet (165 m)
History
OpenedApril 19, 1896 [1]
Location
Delair Bridge

The Delair Bridge is a railroad bridge with a vertical-lift section that crosses the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge. The two-track bridge is part of Conrail Shared Assets Operations and is jointly used by Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation freight trains, as well as by the New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line service.

Contents

History

The lift span of the bridge in 1999 Lift span, from SW. - Pennsylvania and New Jersey Railroad, Delaware River Bridge, Spanning Delaware River, south of Betsy Ross Bridge (State Route 90), Philadelphia, HAER PA,51-PHILA,720-7.tif
The lift span of the bridge in 1999

The Delair Bridge, built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1895–1896, was the first bridge of any sort between Philadelphia and New Jersey. The steel span connected PRR tracks in North Philadelphia to southern New Jersey. It consisted of three fixed Pennsylvania truss spans and a through-truss swing-span drawbridge totaling 1,943 feet (592 m). Approach trestles of 2,129 feet (649 m) on the Pennsylvania side and 324 feet (99 m) on the New Jersey side bring its total length to 4,396 feet (1,340 m). [2]

Starting in 1958, the PRR converted the bridge into a vertical-lift span to increase clearance for river traffic. The 542 feet (165 m) movable link was floated into place in one piece to facilitate installation and minimize delay. [3] Work was completed in 1960. The Delair Bridge was the longest and heaviest double-track lift bridge in the world at the time. Note that the single-track Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge is 2 feet (0.61 m) longer. [4]

The bridge was also electrified in the late 1930s, [5] allowing freight trains hauled by electric locomotives to access the Pavonia Yard in Camden, New Jersey, from the Northeast Corridor. Electrification was removed by January 1967 [6] but was restored in May 1973. [7] However, Conrail ceased electric freight operations in 1981 and removed the wires several years later.

Passenger train traffic on the bridge ceased in 1969 when Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines service was cut to Lindenwold station after the completion of the PATCO Speedline, but was restored in 1989 when Amtrak began the Atlantic City Express service. Amtrak service ended in 1995, but New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line service has used the bridge continuously since 1993.

The bridge's southern track was formerly reserved for freight traffic, and the northern track only used for the Atlantic City Line. As part of the Pennsauken Transit Center project, a station complex where the River LINE passes under the Delair Bridge's eastern approach, platforms were built on both tracks. Both tracks are now used by both passenger and freight trains.

21st century rehabilitation

An NJT Atlantic City Line train on the bridge in 2015 NJT 6013 coming off the Delair Bridge, May 2015.jpg
An NJT Atlantic City Line train on the bridge in 2015

In December 2011, an $18.5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant was awarded to South Jersey Port Corporation by the United States Department of Transportation, partially for rehabilitation of the bridge. [8] [9] The improvements were completed. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Pennsylvania Railroad, legal name 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 peak in 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeast Corridor</span> Electrified railroad line in the Northeastern U.S.

The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C. in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC closely parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day, it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Line (NJ Transit)</span> Light rail line in Southern New Jersey, USA

The River Line is a hybrid rail line in southern New Jersey that connects the cities of Camden and Trenton, New Jersey's capital. It is so named because its route between the two cities is parallel to the Delaware River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betsy Ross Bridge</span> Bridge connecting Philadelphia and New Jersey

The Betsy Ross Bridge is a continuous steel truss bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey. It was built from 1969 to 1974, and opened in April 1976, during the American Bicentennial Year. It was originally planned to be named as the "Delair Bridge", after a paralleling vertical lift bridge owned by Pennsylvania Railroad, which is now used by Conrail Shared Assets Operations and New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line, but was instead later named for Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress and reputed creator of the first American flag in 1776. It was the first automotive bridge named for a woman in the United States, and the second U.S. bridge overall named for a woman after Iowa's Boone High Bridge was renamed the Kate Shelley High Bridge in 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NJ Transit Rail Operations</span> Commuter rail division of NJ Transit

NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail service in Orange and Rockland counties in New York under contract to Metro-North Railroad. The commuter rail lines saw 57,179,000 riders in 2023, making it the third-busiest commuter railroad in North America and the longest commuter rail system in North America by route length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Railroad of New Jersey</span> Defunct Class I railroad in the U.S. state of New Jersey (1839-1976)

The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central, Jersey Central Lines or New Jersey Central, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape May Seashore Lines</span> Short line railroad in southern New Jersery, U.S.

Cape May Seashore Lines is a short line railroad in southern New Jersey that operates both freight trains and excursion trains. It offers two excursion services: a 30-mile (48 km) round trip between Richland and Tuckahoe along the Beesley's Point Secondary railroad line and a 14-mile (23 km) round trip between Rio Grande, Cold Spring Village, and Cape May City along the Cape May Branch. The track is owned by NJ Transit and leased to the Seashore Lines. The Cape May Branch is the original line operated by the Cape May Seashore Lines and runs from Cape May north to Tuckahoe, connecting to the Beesley's Point Secondary in Tuckahoe. Cape May Seashore Lines operates freight service along the Beesley's Point Secondary line between Winslow and Palermo, interchanging with Conrail Shared Assets Operations in Winslow. Tony Macrie has been president of the Seashore Lines since he formed the railroad in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines</span> Railroad that operated in southern New Jersey

The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company.

Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail, an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Areas, where it serves as a contract local carrier and switching company for its owners, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. When most of the former Conrail's track was split between these two railroads, the three shared assets areas were kept separate to avoid giving one railroad an advantage in those areas. The company operates using its own employees and infrastructure but owns no equipment outside MOW equipment.

The United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (UNJ&CC) was a United States-based railroad company established in 1872. It was formed by the consolidation of three existing companies: the Camden and Amboy Railroad, Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, and New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company. The Camden and Amboy and New Jersey Rail Road were among the earliest North American railroads. The Pennsylvania Railroad leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company in 1872.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic City Line</span> Commuter rail line in New Jersey and Pennsylvania

The Atlantic City Line (ACL) is a commuter rail line operated by NJ Transit (NJT) in the United States between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey, operating along the corridor of the White Horse Pike. It runs over trackage that was controlled by both the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. It shares trackage with SEPTA and Amtrak on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) until it crosses the Delaware River on Conrail's Delair Bridge into New Jersey.

The Belvidere-Delaware Railroad was a railroad running along the eastern shore of the Delaware River from Trenton, New Jersey north via Phillipsburg, New Jersey to Manunka Chunk, New Jersey. It became an important feeder line for the Lehigh Valley Railroad's join to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which was constructed into Phillipsburg, New Jersey, at about the same time. This connected Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey at one end of the shortline railroad to the rapidly growing lower Wyoming Valley region, and via the Morris Canal or the CNJ, a slow or fast connection to New York City ferries crossing New York Harbor from Jersey City, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morrisville–Trenton Railroad Bridge</span> Bridge in and Trenton, New Jersey

The Morrisville–Trenton Railroad Bridge is a rail bridge across the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Philadelphia Elevated</span> Railroad viaduct in Pennsylvania, United States

The West Philadelphia Elevated, also known as the High Line or Philadelphia High Line, is a railroad viaduct in the western part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now part of the Harrisburg Subdivision of CSX Transportation, the viaduct was built in 1903 by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to allow through freight trains to bypass rail yard, industrial sidings, and a passenger station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trenton Subdivision (CSX Transportation)</span> Railway line in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

The Trenton Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The line runs from CP NICE in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, northeast to Port Reading Junction in Manville, New Jersey. The line was formerly part of the Reading Company system.

The Shellpot Branch is a former Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central through-freight railroad owned and operated by Norfolk Southern since its acquisition, along with CSX Transportation, of Conrail in 1999. The branch allows Norfolk Southern, since the opening of a new bridge in 2001, to bypass the city of Wilmington, Delaware and allows direct access to both the Port of Wilmington and the New Castle Secondary, which connects to the Delmarva Subdivision of the Delmarva Central Railroad that runs to Central Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia's Eastern Shore. Both ends of the branch connect with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and, like all of the PRR's through-freight lines, was electrified from 1935 until the Conrail era. The line was originally built doubly tracked, but was subsequently converted to single track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankford Junction station</span> Former train stop in Pennsylvania; Northeast Corridor-Atlantic City Line meet point

Frankford Junction is a railroad junction, and former junction station, located on the border between the Harrowgate neighborhood of Philadelphia and Frankford, Philadelphia. At the junction, the 4-track Northeast Corridor line from Trenton connects with the 2-track Atlantic City Line from Atlantic City in the northeastern portion of Philadelphia about 2.9 miles (4.7 km) northeast of North Philadelphia station. It lies near the intersection of Frankford Avenue and Butler Street, to the west of the interchange between Interstate 95 and the approach to the Betsy Ross Bridge. It has been used for rail transportation since 1832 but has not served as a station since October 4, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penns Grove Secondary</span>

Penns Grove Secondary is a rail freight line in the Delaware Valley in the southwestern part of New Jersey. Part of Conrail's South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets it runs for approximately 20 miles (32 km) between its southern terminus at Penns Grove and Woodbury at the north where it joins the Vineland Secondary about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) south of Pavonia Yard in Camden. At its southern end the Deepwater Point Running Track continues another 3.7 miles (6 km) through Carneys Point to Deepwater.

The Vineland Secondary is a rail line owned, operated and maintained by Conrail Shared Assets Operations for the use of CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. It begins at Pavonia Yard in Camden and heads south, with a spur serving the Port of Camden. At Woodbury it junctions with the Salem Branch and Penns Grove Secondary, and continues to Millville, passing through namesake Vineland. At its southern end it connects to the OmniTRAX-owned Winchester and Western Railroad. The line is used exclusively for freight, however, the northern portion is planned to be used for the proposed Glassboro–Camden light rail line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salem Branch</span>

The Salem Branch is a rail freight line in the southwestern part of New Jersey in the United States between the Port of Salem and Woodbury Junction where it and the Penns Grove Secondary converge with the Vineland Secondary, approximately 8.5 miles (13.7 km) south of Pavonia Yard in Camden.

References

  1. "New Delaware River Bridge". The Lewisburg Chronicle. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. April 18, 1896. p. 1. Retrieved May 19, 2019 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  2. Spivey, Justin M. (April 2001). "Pennsylvania & New Jersey Railroad, Delaware River Bridge" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. p. 3. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
  3. "PRR Bridge Will Set a Record". Railway Age. Vol. 145, no. 3. July 21, 1958. pp. 18–33.
  4. Steinman, David B. (December 9, 1948). "The World's Most Notable Bridges". Engineering News-Record. Vol. 141, no. 24. pp. 92–94.
  5. The line to Pavnoia Yard or Atlantic City is not listed in Drawing ET-1, June 10, 1935. Electrification was likely after this, although the Richmond Substation was installed by 1932.
  6. "PRR Interlocking Diagram for JERSEY". January 1, 1971. Retrieved December 26, 2010.
  7. Baer, Christopher T. "PRR Chronology 1973" (PDF). Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  8. http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/index/us-invests-62-million-in-ports/20017927100.htm [ dead link ]
  9. "TIGER 2011 Awards: South Jersey Port Rail Improvements, DelAir Bridge" (PDF). U.S. Department of Transportation. 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  10. Ricereto, Mick (November 9, 2016). "Making Connections in New Jersey with the DelAir Bridge". Hidden City Philadelphia.