Amtrak/NYC 1900 Bridge over Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Left Coast Lifter

(Bridge Hunter, 3D Satellite)

Metrotrails posted

The Spuyten Duyvil Railroad Bridge, formerly of the New York Central Railroad, looking north from the Inwood Hills of Manhattan. 

The site has been a rail crossing since the New York and Hudson River Railroad completed the first wooden span in 1849.

An iron span replaced the wooden one in 1895, and the current 610 foot crossing was completed in 1900. It consists of three fixed sections, and one 290 foot swinging section that provides 100 feet of clearance to passing vessels on the Spuyten Duyvil Creek.

Today, 30 trains per day still use the bridge.

The new Tappan Zee Bridge can be seen in the distance.

Pete Nersesian: How frequently does it open?
Metrotrails: Pete Nersesian pretty often seasonally, when there are cruises around Manhattan more often.
Metrotrails shared

 

WorldIslandInfo.com Flickr via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

United States beauty posted three photos with the comment:

The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is a swing bridge located in New York City, spanning the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between the Bronx and Manhattan. It carries Amtrak’s Empire Connection, a key rail link providing service from New York City to Albany and beyond. Built in 1900, the bridge replaced an earlier wooden bridge from the late 19th century. The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is notable for its swing-span design, allowing it to pivot open horizontally to permit boat traffic on the creek, which connects the Harlem River and the Hudson River.
This bridge plays an essential role in New York’s rail infrastructure, facilitating passenger and freight rail service while accommodating maritime navigation. Operated by Amtrak, the bridge is typically kept closed for rail traffic but opens several times a day for boats, primarily in warmer months. Over the years, the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge has undergone renovations to ensure operational safety, including upgrades to its mechanical systems. Its unique design and strategic location make it a prominent feature in the area, blending historic engineering with modern functionality in New York City’s transportation network.

Drew Hasson: Misnomer, the only freight trains that ever go through here are work trains. No freight service in Manhattan since the 1970's.

Jon Gold: The Spouting Devil, in English.

John Mapguy: I remember this bridge being 'stuck' open around the penncentral time frame do to them not being able or caring to keep it running. Amtrak needed to use GCT for the empire and some of the new haven service. then the state rehabbed the westside tunnels kicking out all the homeless who were living down there and conrail [I think] repaired the bridge to bring empire service into Penn Station again[?].

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John Mapguy: the Circle Line. almost the only vessel to need the bridge swung open.

This bridge is at the northeast corner of Manhattan Island and allows Amtrak trains to go down the west side of the island to Penn Station. The route is being taken out of service this (2018) summer for repairs including this bridge.  The mechanical and electrical equipment has corroded because of the 2012 super-storm Hurricane Sandy. The Empire Tunnel will also be reconstructed. During this outage, the Amtrak trains will terminate at Grand Central Terminal instead of Penn Station.

The Left Coast Lifter will be used to lift the movable span and place it on a barge so that the contractor can work on it offsite.

A 20X video of the lift

I selected nine of the photos that are on Amtrak's web site.

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HeavyMovableStructures, p11

New life for an old bridge - The plan for rehabilitation of the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge was as follows: Replace large portions of the floor system and repair extensive portions of the trusses. Totally replace the center pivot and turntable structure. Rebuild the tops of .the existing river piers, and repair the existing timber fender system. Provide new electrical and mechanical operating systems. Clean and paint the bridge, lay new track, and open the line to rail traffic. The Contractor opted to perform much of the repair and replacement work off-site. Early in the Contract barges were brought to the site and the truss spans were removed from their piers and loaded onto the barges for shipment to a work yard in Kearny, New Jersey. The swing span was split into three pieces for shipment - two end trusses and center tower. Most of the steel repairs and new steel replacement parts were made in the Kearny work yard, and the cleaning and painting of the structures was also accomplished prior to reshipping the structure back to the site. The Contractor also arranged for some of the major mechanical components, such as the end wedges, to be mounted in the shop on the new structural steel supports. This certainly reduced some of the potential for coordination probiems between mechanical and structural trades which often times develop in movable bridge construction jobs. HeavyMovableStructures, p10

The Left Coast Lifter and the swing span on a barge  (source)

Steven J. Brown posted
DV Tower at Spuytin Duyvil, Bronx, New York - March 15, 1990. This line will be reactivated soon after this (one year?) when Amtrak rerouted trains from Grand Central to Penn Station. The tower was demolished in 2014.
Otto Vondrak: Nikos Kavoori last used for freight by Conrail in 1980.
[According to a comment, the line to Grand Central was behind the tower. This would be the line to Penn Station. Satellite]

Jeffrey Gluck posted two photos with the comment: "Spuyten Duyvil Bridge (Amtrak West Side Line/Empire Connection (ex-NYC))."

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