1848,2015 High (Aqueduct) Bridge over Harlem River in New York, NY

(Bridge Hunter broke Mar 22, 2023; Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2022

Metrotrails added

High Bridge between the Bronx and Manhattan. It is the oldest bridge in New York City. 

In 1842, the Croton Aqueduct opened between Manhattan and Croton River in Westchester County the first piped clean drinking water to be brought down from upstate.

At first, inverted siphons brought the water down and up under the Harlem River, until the High Bridge was completed in 1848.

The entire route was designed to have a walkway promenade on top, making it one of the first distance hiking trails. From northern Manhattan to   the Croton Reservoir, most of the route can still be hiked.

In 1928, the five arches that span the Harlem River were removed, and replaced with a single 450 ft [137m] steel arch to allow for the passage of large ships.

The walkway on the bridge was closed in 1970 after a fatality, and it opened again in 2015.

[Some comments have photos of the Highbrdige Water Tower, which is in the background of this photo.]

The water tower is in the left background of this view.

Street View, Oct 2017

Metrotrails added

[Same description as above.]

M'ke Helbing shared

Dave Frieder commented on the above post
Aqueduct Bridge or High Bridge in 1858. Before the installation of the 90 1/2 inch water main above the two original 36 inch mains. The Original name was The Harlem River bridge. Engineer of design, John Bloomfield Jervis.

 

River Rail Photo posted

Sperry Under The High Bridge. Sperry Rail 129 (née-Lehigh Valley 29, St. Louis-EMC, 1925) was inspecting tracks on MTA Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line when it passed under the High Bridge in the Bronx, New York on February 12, 2024. Sperry Rail Service inspects tracks for defects to ensure safe travel for its customers. While some of these “doodlebug” passenger service cars are still used, increasingly they have been migrating to new high rail vehicles, putting these veterans on short time on the railroad. The High Bridge opened in 1848, but was closed from 1970-2015. After a major rehabilitation, it re-opened to pedestrians June 9, 2015. It sits 140 feet above the Harlem River and unites Manhattan Island with the Bronx and thus mainland of the Unites States of America. It is also New York City's oldest existing bridge, pre-dating the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge by 35 years.

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/g4OLOWH75eo 

The speed of the car moving gives an idea as to how painstaking the work is to make sure that defects are identified by the machinery.

Full resolution pics and prints: https://www.riverrailphoto.com/srs 

Matt Gromala: Hopefully the remaining ones enter preservation instead of being scrapped!!

Alden Burns

Alden Burns: Matt Gromala One such car, SRS 135, an ex-SAL car was donated to a museum in 2004: https://www.danburyrail.org/maintenance#135

shu
Five arches were replaced by the steel arch in the 1920s to improve navigation on the Harlem River.
(Specifically, the steel arch was added in 1928. [lehman])

"The High Bridge is the oldest remaining bridge in New York City. The bridge spans the Harlem River, connecting the neighborhoods of Highbridge in the Bronx and Washington Heights in Manhattan. First opened in 1848 as part of the Old Croton Aqueduct, the 1200–foot–long [366m], 116-foot-tall [35m] High Bridge walkway first brought fresh water to New York City from Westchester County and fueled the city’s northward expansion. It was closed to regular public use around 1970." [HarlemRiverWorkingGroup] 

The 1848 bridge was restored as a tral in 2015. [WalkingOffTheBigApple] 

Street View, Jul 2017

lehman
"Highbridge, opened in 1848, is New York City’s oldest surviving bridge. As the first stone structure to connect Manhattan and the mainland, it had been an engineering challenge. Nothing as long—1, 450 feet—or as high—126 feet—had yet been attempted in the United States. Spanning the Harlem River valley on sixteen piers, five of them raised on pilings driven with great difficulty into the river bed, Highbridge took a full nine years to finish. Its mass of granite ashlar supported neither a roadway nor railway, but only two forty-eight inch iron pipes—the final links in the Croton Aqueduct, which brought to New York pure and abundant Westchester water, absolutely essential for its survival." [These dimensions are longer than those given in HarlemRiverWorkingGroup.]