Harlem River Lift Bridge

Nice seeing the Genesis and its shoreliners cross the bridge too.

When this pic was posted sometime around last week, the thread was locked, with the "what does this have to do with trains" disclaimer.

When it was brought back from the dead, I noticed the train crossing the bridge in the background. The boat and its colors definitely caught the viewer's eye and pushed the train into the background. An excellent shot, and glad it was revived!

I thought it was a great shot, don't know why it was locked initially, but that's the magic of locks- they can be unlocked.

Shadyjay and Otto,

I PM'ed the Moderator and told him about the train in the photo and he unlocked it. I thank him for doing so.

Metro-North to launch $30 million Harlem River Bridge project

MTA Metro-North Railroad officials expect to award a contract this fall for the replacement of the original cables of the Harlem River Lift Bridge, which provides the only access into Manhattan for all Metro-North trains.

The $30 million project calls for replacing all the original cables that lift the two, 330-foot-long main spans of the bridge, located 4.5 miles north of Grand Central Terminal. The project also includes replacing the electrical control system and most of the wiring, installing a logic control system to computerize control room circuit boards and rehabilitating the elevator from the track level to the operator's room.

"Metro-North must maintain this crucial piece of infrastructure so that it can be used by both train customers and maritime traffic," said President Howard Permut in a prepared statement. "It is vital to the more than 280,000 Metro-North customers and 750 trains that use it each weekday."

Metro-North plans to schedule much of the work during a six-month Coast Guard outage, during which the bridge will not have to be opened on demand.

Does anyone know how much boat traffic still exists which requires opening this bridge? How many times per year is the bridge opened? I assume Circle Line boats are short enough to pass under the bridge without requiring it to open...is this correct?

What exactly is a Coast Guard outage? The implication that the bridge will be non-opening for 6 months seems to suggest that there is very little legitimate need today for a movable bridge here. If this is an obsolete relic, couldn't the $30M be much better spent converting the bridge to fixed and saving a lot of maintenance and operator costs?

It does open on occasion and since maritime traffic has the right of way it must open on demand.

It does not open for Circle Line traffic.

Is there any kind of agreement between Metro North and the Coast Guard, as I believe there is for the Portal bridge on Amtrak, providing that it does not have to be opened for river traffic during specified rush-hour periods? Or are the opernings so rare that it hasn't been a problem?

ExCon90 wrote:Is there any kind of agreement between Metro North and the Coast Guard, as I believe there is for the Portal bridge on Amtrak, providing that it does not have to be opened for river traffic during specified rush-hour periods? Or are the opernings so rare that it hasn't been a problem?

It seems they have a better deal than Portal:

Title 33: Navigation and Navigable Waters
PART 117—DRAWBRIDGE OPERATION REGULATIONS
Subpart B—Specific Requirements
New York

§ 117.789 Harlem River.

(a) The draws of all bridges across the Harlem River, except the Spuyten Duyvil railroad bridge, need not be opened from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m. However, at all times, public vessels of the United States and New York City vessels used for public safety shall be passed through the draw of each bridge listed in this section as soon as possible.

(b) The draws of the railroad bridges across this waterway need not open on signal from the time an express passenger train scheduled to cross the bridge is within five minutes of the bridge until the train has crossed the bridge.

(c)(1) The draws of the bridges at 103 Street, mile 0.0, Willis Avenue, mile 1.5, Third Avenue, mile 1.9, Madison Avenue, mile 2.3, 145 Street, mile 2.8, Macombs Dam, mile 3.2, 207 Street, mile 6.0, and the two Broadway Bridges, mile 6.8, shall open on signal from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. if at least four hours notice is given to the New York City Highway Radio (Hotline) Room.

(2) The Willis Avenue Bridge, mile 1.5, the Third Avenue Bridge, mile 1.9, and the Madison Avenue Bridge, mile 2.3, need not open for vessel traffic at various times between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the first Sunday in May and November. The exact time and date of each bridge closure will be published in the Local Notice to Mariners several weeks prior to the first Sunday of both May and November.

(d) The draw of the Triborough (125th Street) bridge, mile 1.3, shall open on signal from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. if at least four hours notice is given.

(e) The draw of the Metro North (Park Avenue) Bridge, mile 2.1, shall open on signal, except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., if at least a four-hour advance notice is given by calling the number posted at the bridge.

(f) The draw of the Spuyten Duyvil railroad bridge, mile 7.9, shall open on signal at any time, except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section.

[CGD 82–025, 49 FR 43462, Oct. 29, 1984, as amended by CGD01–01–048, 66 FR 62936, Dec. 4, 2001; CGD01–02–007, 67 FR 6648, Feb. 13, 2002; CGD01–04–019, 69 FR 34572, June 22, 2004]

The only bridge that opens regularly on the Harlem River is the Spuyten Duyvil swing bridge, mostly because it's a swing bridge and not a draw bridge like the others. But that's not even MNR.

once a week is still regularly, its just that we do not see it much as its usually done at night.

ThirdRail7 wrote:

ExCon90 wrote:Is there any kind of agreement between Metro North and the Coast Guard, as I believe there is for the Portal bridge on Amtrak, providing that it does not have to be opened for river traffic during specified rush-hour periods? Or are the opernings so rare that it hasn't been a problem?

It seems they have a better deal than Portal...

I might be wrong, but I think the general legal principal is sort of "first come, first served" when it comes to crossing navigable water. In most cases, the waterway was there long, long before the railroad-- so the boats have priority. However, the Harlem River was not actually navigable until it was dredged out for the Harlem River Ship Canal in the mid-1890's: so the railroad was there first.

The Harlem river has very little or no commercial traffic that will require bridge to be opened.
But for maintenance sake the City of new york requires the acces of crane barges for other bridge maintenance, so draw bridge needs to be maintained. only reasonable large commercial; traffic is Circle line. and all their boats do clear bridge in down position except for Spuyten Duyvil one.

DutchRailnut wrote:The Harlem river has very little or no commercial traffic that will require bridge to be opened.
But for maintenance sake the City of new york requires the acces of crane barges for other bridge maintenance, so draw bridge needs to be maintained. only reasonable large commercial; traffic is Circle line. and all their boats do clear bridge in down position except for Spuyten Duyvil one.

The US Coast Guard requires the bridge to be tested monthly.

Clean Cab wrote:The US Coast Guard requires the bridge to be tested monthly.

We coverd that, infact MNCR opens the bridge once a week, I believe.