CNJ Passaic River Swing Bridge

While an article at wikipdia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PD_Draw -covers the story of the New Jersey Central's bridge Newark/NY Branch (between Communipaw and Broad Street) over the Passaic pretty well, there's a question. Some sources call the tower on the bridge PD (maybe passaic draw), others called in PB (passaic bridge). Another tower PD was at Port Reading, maybe. Anyone who can shed light on what this bridge and it tower may have be known as?

Hmmm I never heard of it being floated down to replace the "Raritan Bay" bridge, which Im assuming would be River Draw. River draw looks to be MUCH larger than PD ever was. Also, I would think that there would be pictures or at least a story about that major event going on during the 1980s, but this article is the first I have ever saw that mentioned anywhere.

It is wiki and no source is cited. I have never heard of such a "modification" to river draw and such a mod would have required that the bridge be taken out of service for some time. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet and believe nothing you read on railroad.net!

Something doesn't match up. On #1 of this thread, a link to a map shows the "PD Draw" as being somewhat West, and South, of the Passaic River, and not on the CNJ ROW (marked by a red dot). The CNJ Passaic Bridge went to the spit of land between the Passaic and the Hack Rivers, not to nowhere, somewhat West of the River. Very interesting bridge (I spent an afternoon there in the mid 90's)...boy, the scent of chemicals stank around Doremus Ave! Questions...when was the last train over the CNJ Passaic Bridge? And, when was the last train across the Pennsy line into either the CNJ Newark pax station, or the big CNJ freight building (now a book depository?) Thanks, Sam

Seems highly unlikely that the swing would have been floated downstream to Raritan Bay; can't find a mention of it anywhere. Both PRR lines, one known as Passaic and Harsimus (or Harsimus Branch) and the other that has become the National Docks Secondary (Greenville Secondary) are in operation (CSX), the first crossing the Hackensack on the Point-No-Point Bridge, the other on the Upper Bay Bridge. (a Lehigh Valley/PRR joint venture).

Jtgshu wrote:Hmmm I never heard of it being floated down to replace the "Raritan Bay" bridge, which Im assuming would be River Draw. River draw looks to be MUCH larger than PD ever was. Also, I would think that there would be pictures or at least a story about that major event going on during the 1980s, but this article is the first I have ever saw that mentioned anywhere.

Side by side comparison using Google maps earth view at the zoomed in scale indicates that the Raritan draw moveable span is about twice as long as the CNJ Passaic span was. Can't be the same structure.

Yea, I was highly doubtful that that claim was true....River is a HUGE draw span.

I do remember reading something I think on here that there was talk a few years ago about floating DB Draw (on the lower boonton Line) down and rebuilding PD draw, as the approaches are still there and I guess its a close fit in size. I haven't seen or heard anything about this since i saw it first, so maybe it was another "wikipedia-like" claim or something that someone heard or posted or got info mixed up?

The Raritan draw span is 331 feet (NY Times) and that of the PD draw (if that's the name, which was the question which started this thread), is 212 ft (Popular Mech), so unless another pier was added (doubtful) can't see how it could it be a replacement. Seems the Raritan has taken its share of bumps (literally). Not in only '58, but in '65, '66, '70, and '76 service on the bridge was knocked out by various ships and barges.

NJDOT is talking about building a span on the alignment across the Passaic but as a road bridge, though it seems like a lot of the traffic will be bringing containers on trucks from Port Newark/Elizabeth to the intermodal yards in Jersey City/North Bergen. The ARC project included a new bridge over the Hackensack to a new yard in Kearny. Don't think there was any talk of it carrying freight, though that would have made restoring the Passaic bridge for rail really viable since there'd be a connection to Croxton and north.

What may be happening here with this claim is the mix up of two completely unrelated things that just happen to be in the vicinity of RIVER.

A good many years ago now, The Victory Bridge - the Route 35 crossing over the Raritan River, was replaced. The original bridge was a center swing just like RIVER is. The old Victory Bridge steel center span was placed on a barge, floated through RIVER, and down to South America where they actually re-used it somewhere down there!

NJT4272 wrote:What may be happening here with this claim is the mix up of two completely unrelated things that just happen to be in the vicinity of RIVER.

A good many years ago now, The Victory Bridge - the Route 35 crossing over the Raritan River, was replaced. The original bridge was a center swing just like RIVER is. The old Victory Bridge steel center span was placed on a barge, floated through RIVER, and down to South America where they actually re-used it somewhere down there!

Im not sure about that Jeff, unless they disassembled the swing span of the Victory Bridge piece by piece, I remember seeing it get smaller and smaller every day til it was no longer there?

I remember it being one of the last parts of the old bridge standing, as this pic on the NJDOT site shows

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/c ... 0043lg.jpg
http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/c ... hotos.shtm

But im pretty sure when they were removing it, it was dismantled and scrapped, and not floated away

BTW, while im a bit of a "Bridge Buff" and like old bridges, the old Victory Bridge is one bridge i was very glad to see go......that was a death trap...I rode over it only once on my motorcycle.....ooohhh man....bad idea. Just like im not going to shed a tear when the Route 7 Wittpenn Bridge goes away......thats another one that Id love to take the torch to myself....

Jtgshu wrote: Im not sure about that Jeff, unless they disassembled the swing span of the Victory Bridge piece by piece, I remember seeing it get smaller and smaller every day til it was no longer there?

I remember it being one of the last parts of the old bridge standing, as this pic on the NJDOT site shows

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/c ... 0043lg.jpg
http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/c ... hotos.shtm

But im pretty sure when they were removing it, it was dismantled and scrapped, and not floated away

BTW, while im a bit of a "Bridge Buff" and like old bridges, the old Victory Bridge is one bridge i was very glad to see go......that was a death trap...I rode over it only once on my motorcycle.....ooohhh man....bad idea. Just like im not going to shed a tear when the Route 7 Wittpenn Bridge goes away......thats another one that Id love to take the torch to myself....

You're probably right, JT. But I do remember talk when the decision was made to replace the bridge that the plan was to send it to South America. I think in the end, it didn't happen, but it was one of the ideas for the center span. I was just thinking that perhaps that's where the claim in the Wikipedia article might have come from.

...... and I don't care what you say - driving over the old Victory Bridge was a thrill! It was one of those few really exciting things to do in the area at the time! You felt like a Hollywood stuntman going over it! It was a close second to driving over the old Washington Street bridge downtown in Perth Amboy! Now that was scary!

The Passaic River swing bridge that was between Newark and Kearny, if I understand this correctly, was cut up on the spot in the early 1980's.

In October 1970, 17 freight cars and 5 engines were intentionally plunged into the Passaic from the bridge, which was normally left open at night. The act of sabotage was carried out by someone who knew what they were doing and had access to the CNJ yard nearby. Oak Island was LV yard, I believe, Was the CNJ yard called Brills or was there another in the vicinity?

Questions:

Is this bridge still extant?

If so, is it now a ConRail bridge?

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 3:46 am Questions:

Is this bridge still extant?

If so, is it now a ConRail bridge?

Gone since the 1980's or so: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7230422 ... ?entry=ttu