by pumpers
I'm trying to create an exact history of RR lines in the Secacus/Kearny/west Jersey City area in the late 1800s/early 1900's time frame.
When was Erie DB draw built? This is the one that in the early 1900's until recent years carried the Erie NY & Greenwood lake (the Boonton line from 1960's until the Montclair connection was built about 15 years ago) and the Erie Newark Branch (formally the Newark and Hudson RR) over the Hackensack, location is : N 40.75825 W 74.09386 It went out of service 10-15 years ago.
Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Draw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) says 1889 and cites a NY Times article. But the article ( http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 94689FD7CF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) says it replaced a bridge originally built by the Morris and Essex (later the Lackawanna, now NJT Morristown line). The details are complicated (see http://warofyesterday.blogspot.com/2012 ... lroad.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) but in short the M&E built a 2nd bridge for its traffic (at N 40.74329 W 74.07683 , later replaced at the same location by the current "Lower Hack") due to getting its own Bergen Hill tunnel around 1877. The first bridge the M&E built (around 1863 at at N 40.74602 W 74.07545) was then taken over by the Erie Newark and Hudson RR . It was only a few 100 yards north of the 1877 bridge . So it sounds like the NY Times article is describing this bridge being replaced, which is about a mile south of DB.
Further, in 1889 the Montclair RR, the predecessor of the NY&GL was even not yet owned by the Erie, and the 1889 NY Times article talks about Erie building a bridge. (DB draw did replace an earlier NY&GL bridge on the same location as DB, I just don't think DB was the bridge in the NY Times article. )
So this is all to say I don't trust the Wikipedia date.
Any experts out there who know when DB was actually built? It is very confusing and hope I have described it correctly (correct my errors please!)
Thanks, JS
One more confusion is that around DB draw was built, the Erie Newark and Hudson realigned in the meadowlands in Kearny to connect to the NY&GL to use DB (the "modern" Newark Branch alignment) or whatever was their previously, and the I believe the new bridge in the 1889 NY Times article was abandoned after only 20 years. Nothing in that location since at least ~1911 or so. Perhaps it was moved a mile north and became DB?
When was Erie DB draw built? This is the one that in the early 1900's until recent years carried the Erie NY & Greenwood lake (the Boonton line from 1960's until the Montclair connection was built about 15 years ago) and the Erie Newark Branch (formally the Newark and Hudson RR) over the Hackensack, location is : N 40.75825 W 74.09386 It went out of service 10-15 years ago.
Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Draw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) says 1889 and cites a NY Times article. But the article ( http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 94689FD7CF" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) says it replaced a bridge originally built by the Morris and Essex (later the Lackawanna, now NJT Morristown line). The details are complicated (see http://warofyesterday.blogspot.com/2012 ... lroad.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) but in short the M&E built a 2nd bridge for its traffic (at N 40.74329 W 74.07683 , later replaced at the same location by the current "Lower Hack") due to getting its own Bergen Hill tunnel around 1877. The first bridge the M&E built (around 1863 at at N 40.74602 W 74.07545) was then taken over by the Erie Newark and Hudson RR . It was only a few 100 yards north of the 1877 bridge . So it sounds like the NY Times article is describing this bridge being replaced, which is about a mile south of DB.
Further, in 1889 the Montclair RR, the predecessor of the NY&GL was even not yet owned by the Erie, and the 1889 NY Times article talks about Erie building a bridge. (DB draw did replace an earlier NY&GL bridge on the same location as DB, I just don't think DB was the bridge in the NY Times article. )
So this is all to say I don't trust the Wikipedia date.
Any experts out there who know when DB was actually built? It is very confusing and hope I have described it correctly (correct my errors please!)
Thanks, JS
One more confusion is that around DB draw was built, the Erie Newark and Hudson realigned in the meadowlands in Kearny to connect to the NY&GL to use DB (the "modern" Newark Branch alignment) or whatever was their previously, and the I believe the new bridge in the 1889 NY Times article was abandoned after only 20 years. Nothing in that location since at least ~1911 or so. Perhaps it was moved a mile north and became DB?