1925 FEC Bridge over St. Johns River in Jacksonville, FL

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, E.W. Wall, Flickr daylight, Flickr nighttime)

FEC is the Florida East Coast. This is the railroad that used to connect the islands all the way to Key West.

3D Satellite

Birds Eye View to show it open

Photo, Cleveland State University Library Photograph Collection from Bridge Hunter

Dale V Rockwll posted
BNSF power on NS train crossing FEC's St.Johns River bridge with interchange, coming off CSX trackage! Got it?

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted

Third Time's A Charm!

After trying twice on last year's Florida adventure to get this shot last as told here: https://flic.kr/p/2njbVLR I gave it another try this year. This location is only a five minute detour off the highway so my gf said we had about 30 min to play with since we were a bit ahead of schedule on our way to Savannah for the night.

After parking and walking up the sidewalk I was about even with the operators tower when I heard the radio crackle and then the horn sound. The drawbridge operator was standing on the deck watching a couple small vessels head downriver, and then as soon as they cleared he stepped inside and the span began to lower. I headed back to my prechosen spot and momentarily was rewarded with this transfer run only 15 minutes after getting off the highway!

CSXT 8365,a rebuilt SD40-2 originally built in Apr. 1969 as Chesapeake and Ohio 7506, leads about 1500 ft of intermodal southbound headed to Bowden Yard presumably to connect with train 105 for Miami

This nearly 2500 foot long double track crossing of the St. Johns River was built in 1925 and features a Strauss heel-trunnion bascule movable span. It marks the northernmost point of the 369 mile mainline of Florida East Coast Railway and MP 0 can be found immediately on the north bank.

Jacksonville, Florida

Wednesday March 29, 2023

Randall Hampton shared

Dale V Rockwell posted
NS train 209 (Atlanta-Jacksonville-FEC Miami) crossing the Florida East Coast Ry's St. John's river bridge with a mix of power on 2/8/17. BNSF power is often seen on this high priority train.
Cheryl Day love that loco power true Santa Fe and then you look over to the left, there is CSX quarters...

Gordon Davis IV posted
Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge over the St John's River in Jacksonville, FL.
Top...Bridge raised for boat traffic
Bottom...Bridge lowered for rail traffic
[The comments contain a video of it going down and another video of two locos travelling light across it.]

Dale V Rockwell commented on his post

It has two tracks and it "was the heaviest yet built for a Strauss Bascule at the time of construction. He also remarks that the bridge is unusual in using Pratt trusses rather than Warren trusses. The design of the counterweights is not one of the four Mallery mentions, being a pair of thin weights which fit inside the tower." [E.W. Wall from Paul Mallery's Bridge and Trestle Handbook]



A 0:35 video of it going down. In the background you can hear a honking. Is that the train approaching this bridge? It struck me as a rather sick sounding horn.

A 16:35 video of the bridge going down, a locomotive crossing and the bridge going back up. There is another view of the bridge action at 15:22 that catches a boat zooming under the closing bridge.