1927,2014 Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge in Pennsylvania

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; B&T; 3D Satellite)

I discovered this bridge in a "Bridges & Tunnels with Sherman Cahal" post. Any cantilevered bridge that a state DOT restored is worth noting. In fact, HistoricBridges reports that Pennsylvania's original plans were to replace it. However, HistoricBridges explains that the state could not afford a replacement and did just a partial rehabilitation good for 25 years rather than a complete rehabilitation that would have been good for 75 years.

Street View, Sep 2021

Some of the detailed photos in BridgeHunter caught my eye since they showed pin connections. I was able to catch some pin connections in a street view. Note the lower-left and upper-right corners in this view. This bridge must have been a transition design between pin connections and gusset plates because descriptions of the $16.6m 2011-14 rehabilitation include "repairing all gusset plates."

Street View

This view was taken while the rehabilitation was in progress.

Street View, Oct 2013

1906-1987 Milwaukee/Chicago Southern Railway Jenkins Ford High Bridge

(Bridge Hunter; Satellite, a couple of miles east of Westville, IL over the Vermilion River)

BridgeHunter
A view of the trestle and the then current mode of transportation. The bridge that they will cross is barely visible on the other side of the trestle towers.

eBook via BridgeHunter, 1908

While paging through the eBook to find a page number for the above photo (page 601), I found some more photos of this bridge.

Digitized by Google, p173

Digitized by Google, p475

Digitized by Google, p553

Digitized by Google, p601

An artist rather obviously added a work train to the above photo.

Postcard via BridgeHunter

The footing by the river is almost covered up by trees.

Satellite

Jim Bryant posted seven images with the comment:

Jenkins Ford Bridge, east of Westville, Illinois, was built in 1906 for the Chicago Southern Railway; removed in 1987. In its day it was considered the tallest bridge in Illinois. Built by Chicago Bridge & Iron Works of Chicago, Illinois (also known as Chicago Bridge & Iron Co).. Railroads lines that operated in its day were  the Chicago Southern Railway (CSRY)- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (MILW),  Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway (CTH&S)

Design

Deck plate girder

Dimensions

Length of largest span: 200.0 ft.

Total length: 1,600.0 ft.

Tim Shanahan shared

1
The removal of the bridge in early 1980's.

2

3

4
Construction of both bridges in 1906.

5
This picture was taken in1906. This was the south bridge which provided a right of way for civilians to get across the river. To the right and adjacent was the railroad bridge which is seen at the right of the picture.

6
The aerial view was taken in 1940.

7
The same overhead view from what it looks like presently, the blue line showing where the railrlroad line ran. Two concrete girders are barely visible juat past Vermilion River.

ToDo:

Digitized by Google, p177

1889,1916,1951,2017 One-Lane Road+R.J. Corman/C&O Bridge over New River in Thurmond, WV

(Brudge Hunter; Historic Bridges; B&T, Blog; ; Satellite)

BridgeHunter specifies a build date of 1916, but B&T explains that date is when it was rebuilt after a derailment of two cars caused extensive damage. The bridge was completed in 1889 and the building railroad was connected to the C&O in 1893. In addition to the 1916 repairs, the bridge has been rehabilitated in 1951 and 2017.

There are more photos with this bridge in some notes on the coaling tower in Thurmond, WV. This town is so far off the beaten path that a street view car has evidently never been there.

Photo in comment by Tim in BridgeHunter

 

Jonathan Konopka posted
1982 - C&O 3863 in Thurmond, WV. Photograph by John F. Bjorklund, collection of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art.
William Alan Hall: Worked there many times over the years on CSX. See that little road on the right? I use to cross that with a big knuckle boom service truck. There was no weight limit on it back then. They assured me it would hold my truck. Use to close one eye when I crossed it....
Brandon Demers: “LEFT LANE LIMIT- 20000 TONS”.
Randall Hampton shared
That's the Thurmond station on the right.

This is the original bridge. Note that it had two tracks.

A 5:02 video of a history of the bridge, Screenshot @ 1:21

Using the video since I can't use street view, it appears that this 1916 bridge was built with gusset plates instead of pin connections.

Abandoned and Old Truss Road Bridges over Spoon River

Old Babylon Road: (Satellite)

Aban Seville Road: (Satellite) This crossing has been replaced by IL-95. It is next to the KJRY/TP&W bridge.

Aban Old Bridge Road: (Satellite) There is a new bridge just a few hundred feet downstream.

Seville Road:

Hans Goeckner, Nov 2021

Old Bridge Road:

Fred Monger shared
the bridge at Bernadotte Illinois, before part of it fell into the Spoon River...

Tomas Powell commented on Fred's post
The part of the bridge that was removed

Justin Fogerty posted a 2:20 drone video and six photos. The drone video includes the Camp Ellis Spoon River Dam that is just upstream from this bridge. It also flies over the fallen segment that is now on land.

1

2

3

4

5

6

This river has some good examples of meanders.

Almost cutoff

Cutoff

Part of an oxbow lake that is still left.

Satellite

Double Bascule Bridge across North Coast Harbor in Cleveland, OH

(Satellite, it is new enough that it has yet to appear on a satellite image)

I determined the satellite location by the William G. Mather steamship and the FirstEnergy Stadium in the background.

Doublas Spott posted
New pedestrian Double Bascule Bridge across North Coast Harbor

Douglas commented on his post

Douglas Butler posted
Photo taken by Douglas Butler the new 2021 North Coast Harbor Double Leaf Dutch Type is in Cleveland, OH.

Southern Pacific Ferries across the Mississippi River in and near New Orleans, LA

Southern Pacific entered the New Orleans area on the south side of the river. and terminated in New Orleans. They used two ferry routes to interchange traffic with northern and eastern railroads and to deliver passengers to the downtown area. I'm going to call the routes "New Orleans" and "Harahan-Avondale".

New Orleans:

North Side: (Satellite, there are still some tracks left on this side of the river)

South Side: (Satellite)

Harahan-Avondale:

North Side: (the area has changed too much to identify the location)

South Side: (Satellite)

These ferries were made obsolete by the Huey P. Long Bridge in 1935. The IC W.B. Duncan ferry was reassigned to the Mississippi River when the P&I Bridge made the IC Ohio River ferry obsolete.

New Orleans

Derby Gisclair posted
Railroads needed a way to transport their railcars across the Mississippi River as well. This photograph shows the interior of an unloaded train ferry. The catamaran style sidewheeler from 1900 had two sets of tracks that could accommodate four to six railcars. The terminal was located at the foot of Esplanade Avenue and ran to Morgan's Landing in Algiers.
Jerry Pepper: That one in the picture appears to have 3 sets of tracks! And I think I’ve seen some with up to 4 sets of tracks inside them.

Eric Cormier shared
[There are a lot of comments on this share. Some concern the Admiral, which was built on the hull of this ferry. Others argue if this was a Detroit ferry instead of a NOLA ferry.]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's share
1932 New Orleans NE Quadrangle @ 1:31,680

Nancy Brister [This page has more photos.]

Jack Bobby Lou Mulreavy posted
Southern Pacific car ferry in New Orleans LA

Gary C. Huggins posted
Before the Huey P. Long Bridge opened in 1935, trains were ferried across the river. Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited" westbound, sits aboard the ferry barge "Mastodon" accompanied by Engine No. 73, a steam switcher, as they are ferried across the Mississippi River from the foot of Elysian Fields Avenue to a landing at Elmira Street in Algiers Point.
The Mastodon, a barge built in 1909 at the New York Ship Building Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, was a 368-foot long, 50-foot wide behemoth which, propelled by tugboats, carried Southern Pacific trains between Elysian Fields Avenue and Elmira Street in Algiers Point.
Wendy BeachWalker: Those "Mastadon barges" still exist! I live on the Santa Rosa Sound in Florida and currently there is a dredging project right at the Destin bridge. Those massive barges create such an undertow, that other boats and pontoons have to use extreme caution to avoid getting into their wake.
We get very serious wave action every time they pass through our part of the sound. Very scary!
Jim Taylor: Wendy BeachWalker there was only one Mastodon and T. Smith bought it after the R/R operations ceased

Mark Imhoff shared

Christopher L Purdom posted three photos with the comment: "Can’t find dates to go with pictures. Just that this is in New Orleans."

1

2

3

Harahan-Avondale

Jim Taylor posted three images with the comment: "The Southern Pacific R/R car float barge that operated between Harahan and Avondale, Louisiana prior to the inauguration of the Huey P. Long Bridge in 1935 'Huey P. Long bridge had vehicular and rail traffic' Note: The slip remains today at the upper end of the now defunct Avondale Shipyard. Appears as if the barge employed a full time Pilot to run the operation from the barge Pilothouse and docking platform, 'Hand and whistle signals were the norm of the day'"

1

2

3

1932 New Orleans NW Quadrangle @ 1:31,680

1910 Amtrak/Pennsy North (Hudson) River Tunnel

(Satellite, west portal)

The completion date and correct name for the title were found here.

safe_image for Clock is ticking for 110-year-old Hudson River rail tunnel
Superstorm Sandy flooded the tunnel with saltwater in 2012.

I learned about the Gateway Project for rebuilding rail access to Manhattan from when I studied the replacement of the Portal Bridge. By delaying the construction of a new tunnel, we (taxpayers) now need to pay for repairs on the old tunnel as well as building a new tunnel.

Trump remembered his campaign promise concerning a wall at the Mexico border but forgot his promise about fixing our infrastructer. I wish it had been the other way around.

I was aware that there was a funding issue. I was not aware that the US Army Corps of Engineers was delaying an approval.

safe_image for Project to fix critical Northeast Corridor choke point gets go-ahead

8:11 video: since 2014, needed repairs have caused 65,000 minutes (45 days) of delays (commuter cancellations) and 20% of the nations GDP gets put on hold. The new tunnels are expected to take 7 years to build, and then fixing the existing tunnels would be another 3 years.

The Gateway Project:

Screenshot @ 3:12
(Portal North Bridge)

What may have been.

Fred Hadley posted

The new bridge over the Hudson River New York in 1896

We present a perspective view of the proposed New York and New Jersey railroad bridge across the Hudson River. It shows also the New York approaches and the location of the grand terminal station. The station will be at the corner of Eighth Avenue, Forty-ninth and Fifty-first Streets.

The six track viaduct will run thence west to the block in Fiftieth Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. There, by a broad curve, the viaduct will sweep northward., constantly rising at a grade of thirty-five feet to the mile.

The structure will curve to the westward again at Fifty-eighth Street, and at Fifty-ninth Street and Twelfth Avenue it will reach the end of the bridge structure proper.

The imposing proportions of the bridge and the beauty of its designs are shown in the illustration, and, when we study its dimensions in detail, it is perhaps safe to say that it will be the greatest engineering work ever attempted. This can best be understood by reference to the present Brooklyn Bridge. The main span of the new bridge will be more than twice the length and its towers fully twice the height of those

of the Brooklvn Bridge.

It was originally proposed to erect a bridge of the cantilever system, with a river span of 2,000 feet. This would have necessitated a tower 1,000 feet out in midstream, and, as the War Office requirements demanded that the river navigation should be unobstructed, it was determined by the company to attempt the bridging of the Hudson River by a mammoth suspension bridge, with a great central span of 3254 feet. 

There will be six railroad tracks, and the bridge is to be strong enough to carry all the tracks loaded with trains from end to end, or a total live load of about 30,000 tons.

It is estimated that the bridge itself will cost $25 million and the cost of the whole, bridge, approaches and terminal works, will be about $60 million. Should there be no legal or other obstructions, it is estimated that the work can be completed in eight years.

The design illustrated was made by the Union Bridge Company, of New York City. Like other Hudson crossing proposals, this one was never built. 

Scientific American excerpt and engraving, May 2, 1896

2022 Update: It looks like the route of the new Hudson River Tunnel has changed since 2014. The cost is now estimated at $11.6b. I have seen some headlines that indicate funding has finally been approved.

NewYorkIMBY

safe_image for Amtrak leverages weekend service outages to make critical repairs in North River Tunnel