NS/NYC Iron Curtain Bridge over Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite)

I noticed that Cleveland has quite a few lift bridges for roads as well as railroads. After Chicago built the Halsted Street Bridge, they decided lift bridges would be too ugly for use in the downtown area so the invented their Chicago Style trunnion bascule design.

Photo by C Hanchey, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), Flickr

Bridge Hunter has a build date of 1947. But Historic Bridges explains the project to widen the river was started in 1946, but this bridge was completed in 1958. C Hanchey's Flickr page also uses the 1958 date. I assume the truss on top carries pipes.

The former swing bridge and B&O Bridge #464 in a lowered position. This also shows the NYC+Big Four+Pennsy Union Station.

Wayne Koch posted
Cleveland OH Railyard NYC PRR 1949.
Geoffrey Morland shared

The Port of Cleveland photo

This historic shot (circa 1930-1959) depicts an Ore Carrier entering the mouth of Cuyahoga River bound for steel mills upriver.

📷 : Cleveland Memory Project
Charles Miller Bridge was new in the picture. It replaced a swing bridge in 1956.
Annie Gnagy River looks high! [That was my reaction.]

Andrew Haenisch shared
Gary Thompson The infamous Conrail bridge that would strike fear in the hearts of ship captains. Capt. Ed Drummond of the Crispin Oglebay used to say "Fe Fi Fo Fum Conrail won't open for anyone"! You'd give the bridge a 1 hour Security Call and come inside the breakwall and blow for the bridge and it would never respond or open for us. It seemed if an East bound train had just left Toledo, they'd wait for him to pass before opening. Today, at least they will answer you on the radio and let you know, so that you can check down out in the lake instead of trying to hold position between the piers.
Jim Nemecky We always timed it with one long and two short blasts for the bridge master to lift the bridge. Only problem we had on the Cuyahoga was the swing bridge master was a bit slow and almost caused a collision.

Kenneth James White posted
Norfolk Southern (and before that Conrail, and before that Penn Central, and before that New York Central!) lift bridge at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in me hometown of Cleveland. Known locally as the"Iron Curtain".
Brandon Lee Known on the RR as bridge one.

Roger Smith posted three photos with the comment: "690' [210m] of Herbert Jackson squeezing [ and backing] out of Whiskey Island was a "wow" moment -  especially with the lift bridge hosting a train. May '21, Cleveland"

Dennis DeBruler: Does the propwash in the third photo mean that it is still backing up?

Roger Smith: Dennis DeBruler he was holding at that moment.

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Concerning Roger's first photo above, the rolling bridge is B&O #464 and the lift bridge behind it is the Willow Avenue Bridge.

Street View, Aug 2019

Cleveland Public Library Photo Credit, License: Released into public domain
Old and New - Construction 1956

Douglas Butler posted
Cleveland Public Library: Iron Cartain Railroad Swing Bridge replaced with a 1947 Vertical Lift Bridge located in Cleveland, OH.

Jonathan Konopka posted
Neat find here. Looking at Bridge One over the Cuyahoga River being constructed in the 1950's, with the original swing bridge visible in the background. Photo credit belongs to Fred Bultman.

 

Bill Kloss posted
Mark W. Barker passes through the Norfolk Southern lift bridge as she makes her way to Lake Erie. 9/13/2022

(new window) You can tell it is a more modern bridge, the train is going pretty fast for a movable bridge. Fast train speeds would be important for Norfolk Southern and Amtrak since this is on their mainline between Chicago and New York. At 3:21, at second train crosses the bridge. At 4:46, the trains are done and the span starts to lift.

Wayne Koch posted
Cleveland OH Railyard NYC PRR 1949.
John Penca Bridge one in the photo was a swing bridge later replaced by a two track lift bridge which NS uses today.
Paul Volosyn Cool seeing one come off the Clark branch and heading west on the Chicago line. Also the B&O coming across bridge 464 (by shooters) and heading to the interchange with the NYC. Great photo.

Wayne Koch posted
Gem. NYC EMD F7 class DFA-2f 1671, Cuyahoga River drawbridge, Cleveland, OH 1960s NYCSHS.

Dan Nelson commented on Wayne's posting

Ron Reed posted
Eastbound Cleveland '81
[Note the Huletts in the right background on Whiskey Island and part of the Willow Avenue Bridge in the left background.]
Randy Grindley: Nice overall view of Bridge One. Thanks for sharing.
Paul Thomas: Randy Grindley Were all their bridges numbered? I know the B&O had all theirs numbered downtown, didn’t know if that was the same rule of thumb for the CR & their bridges

Jerry W. Jordak: NYC numbered their bridges as follows:

- Bridge 1 at the mouth of the Cuyahoga

- Bridge 2 was the former Big Four/Clark Branch bridge next to Carter Street (now abandoned)

- Bridge 4 was on the industrial lead to the lower flats (last used by the Flats Industrial Railroad)

- Bridge 6 crossed the river between DK Yard on the Clark Branch and the upper flats next to Scranton Road.

I don't know if there were ever bridges 3 or 5.

Geoffrey Moreland shared
Notice the connection to the left. That took you down the Big 4 line across a few more lift bridges over the river. The line to the left is gone but the bridges remain.

Geoffrey Morland shared a post by Brian Akers. Brian commented: "Year 1974. Bridge one at the mouth of the cuyahoga river. Two Diesel engines ran into the counter weight,while the bridge was open. Bridge operator gave the all clear to train crew.Then opened the bridge because a ship was waiting to go down the river. And forgot to tell the engine crew not to proceed. They hit the bridge at 33mph in the middle of the night. Completely demolished the two engines,crew was crushed to death,engineer and fireman.The frame from the lead engine went under the counter weight into the river almost hitting the ship passing under the bridge. The second engines frame can be seen hanging over the river in one of the pics."

Brian Akers: NTSB Report is here: http://specialcollection.dotlibrary.dot.gov/Document... [This link was broke when I tried to access it. Hopefully, that is temporary.]

George Arther: I was going to CSU at the time and several of us went down to watch them hauling the engine out of the river.

Brian Akers: It was just the frame and fuel tank,and the engine trucks that went into the river. The rest of it hit the counter weight.

Look at the pics the superstructure and Diesel engines were crushed against the counter weight. The frames were sheared off and went under the space between the tracks and bottom of the counter weight.

Aaron Etienne shared

John Hazucha shared with the comment: "This wreck occurred in 1974, at the lift bridge at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland Ohio."

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Comments on Aaron's share
[Several other comments said the crew was at fault for not obeying the signals.]

A close up of the lift span: 

Roger Durfee posted
Great Lakes Towing tug "Cleveland" waits as a Norfolk Southern westbound crosses Bridge 1 over the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on 06-07-2018. The Central Railroad of New jersey Heritage unit leads. The ATB Defiance/Ashtabula waits on the far side of the bridge. Note the Cleveland Harbor Main Entrance Lighthouse in the distance on the left.

(new window)  At 3:00, it sounds like the ship has a steam engine. Only the first two scenes are at night. At 6:20, Hulett unloaders are in the background! 7:49 shows the rolling bascule bridge. In the foreground at 10:59 we see how jointed rail becomes wavy if it is not maintained. At 12:32 you realize he has been riding up with the span.


(new window) Note when it raises at 3:57 that this bridge has very little clearance. Even small pleasure boats have to wait for it to go up. Even ski- jets and kayaks?



(new window)   Norfolk Southern railroad bridge defaults to up position over Cuyahoga River



Flickr Album with lots of nice photos

Photos and a video

A couple of videos  When it is down, two westbound trains use it at the same time. I wonder if NS normally queues up two at a time to reduce the closures of the river.