Busway/Pennsy/Panhandle and Corliss Tunnels in Pittsburgh, PA

Panhandle West Portal: (Satellite)

Panhandle East Portal: (Satellite)

Road: (Satellite)

It you see a photo of a tunnel portal and you can see the other end, then it is a portal of the road bridge because that tunnel is short, straight and wide. I focussed on the Panhandle tunnel.

HistoricPittsburgh, cropped
May 22, 1914
"Workers gather under Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad tracks during excavation of the Corliss Tunnel. The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, formed in 1890, is a branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company."

HistoricPittsburgh
May 22, 1914
"Three workers watch the photographer as one man sits on a wagon labeled M. O'Herron Co. and two others stand on a steam shovel in this view of excavation on the sub-grade at the south end of the Corliss Tunnel."

pitt
May 22, 1914
"Freight trains sit at the slip of the railroad embankment at the south end of the tunnel on Corliss Street. Men can be seen repairing the tracks, while houses are visible on the hill in the background."

This tunnel was west of Corliss Yard.

1951/51 Pittsburgh West Quad @ 24,000 via Dennis DeBruler

1970+2010 LA-1 Leeville Bridges over Bayou Lafourche on the way to Grand Isle, LA

1970: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges)

2010: (Satellite)

Because LDOT standardized the design for their lift bridge, the old lift bridge probably looked like the Crescent Avenue Bridge.

Street View, May 2008

Street View, May 2008

I had trouble finding this bridge because it doesn't exist and because it is rather far away from Grand Isle. But the above street views confirm that I found the correct bridge.

Living in Louisiana posted
grand isle, la ..., LA, looking southeast towards Grand Isle and the Gulf of Mexico
[I should have read the comments before looking for the bridge. The is one of several comments that provided the correct information.]

Billy Chiasson: That's not Grand Isle. That's Leeville looking north towards golden meadow, not southeast towards Grand Isle or the gulf. And that bridge was demolished around 2009 and no longer exists.

[What is the economic benefit of foreign bots spamming Facebook?]

Given that the lift span is built rather high above the water, I wonder what percentage of the boats could pass underneath without requiring the 181' (55m) span to be lifted.

 

According to a comment on ArchivedBridgeHunter, the new bridge was part of a project to elevate LA-1 above the swampland between Golden Meadow and Port Fourchon..

Karen LaCorte, Apr 2018

Are they building these platforms for use somewhere else or is drilling that dense in this area?

Michael Bessler, Jan 2018

1904 W&LE Whiskey Run Viaduct and Rook Yard at Green Tree, PA

Viaduct: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Yard: (Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2024

Dave Kuntz posted four photos with the comment: "Rook Yard and Trestle near Greentree PA, with the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad.  It's a fun 10 minute downhill bike ride from my house and a painful 20 minutes uphill back!"

1

2

3

4

Phil Martin Photography posted
This is known as the Whiskey Run Viaduct. It's a long elevated rail bridge that crosses over I-376 in Scott Township Pennsylvania. It was built in 1904. Norfolk Southern and Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad use the bridge. The bridge is almost a quarter mile long.

Nick Paranzino: Norfolk southern doesn't use this bridge, its WLE only.

1884+1921 Allegheny Valley Railroad/B&O 33rd Street Bridge over Allegheny River and Schenley Tunnel in Pittsburgh, PA

Bridge: (no Bridge Hunter or Historic Bridges; pghbridges; Satellite)

38th Street Yard: (Satellite, the triangle between 36th and 40th used to be 38th Street Yard. [pghbridges])

Schenley Tunnel: (Satellite, South Portal)

CSX now uses the former-P&LE route to get through Pittsburgh. The B&O trackage is now used by a shortline.

Street View, Apr 2023

The bridge is relatively short compared to other Allegheny River bridges because Herrs Island narrows the channel.

wikiwand
B&O built this bridge in 1921. The predecessor bridge was built in 1884.

Joseph Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)

33rd Street Railroad Bridge

The 33rd Street Railroad Bridge carries the Allegheny Valley Railroad (former B&O line) over the Allegheny River between Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood and just to the south of the municipality of Millvale. It is too bad that the Allegheny Valley Railroad does not seem to be too active, as this would be one of the neatest Pittsburgh bridges to catch a train on.

.

38th Street Yard

This map shows the 38th Street Railyard. B&O had industrial spurs downstream on both sides of the river. In fact, some of that industrial trackage still exists. The railroad south of the B&O was the Pennsy.

1951 Pittsburgh East Quad @ 24,000

The 38th Street Yard that we see on the topo map is now industrial buildings, but the trestle that carried the connection from the mainline still exists as do some industrial spurs. In fact, the street views show that the trestle was rebuilt from wood to steel in 2016. How could a shortline afford to do this? (The bridge is peeking through the trees on the right.)

Street View, Jun 2016

Back when the bridge had both of its tracks, and it was used by a Class I railroad. That is the FY Tower at the junction of the mainline and the industrial spur. See the tower notes for more information about B&O's mainline route across the Pittsburgh peninsula.

Darren Reynolds posted

.

B&O Mainline across Pittsburgh's peninsula and Schenley Tunnel

This 33rd Street Bridge is in the upper-left corner and the Laughlin (GN) Tower is at the bottom of this excerpt.

1951 Pittsburgh East Quad @ 24,000

The mainline curved north at the Laughlin Tower and followed a deep river valley until it entered the Schenley Tunnel north of Forbes Avenue.

Street View, Sep 2022

It left the tunnel a little north of Centre Ave and followed another deep river valley until it went on a trestle over 33rd Street to the bridge.

Street View, Aug 2021

Dave Kuntz posted four photos with the comment: "More 33rd Street Bridge in Pittsburgh.  We the second track has been removed, a mystery door below (who knows where it goes?), and yet another abandoned spur attached to an active branch line under it."

1

2

3

4

Bill Rettberg Jr. posted
shoving a drag westbound out of Glenwood yard, and now crossing the Allegheny River.

Patrick Rieger: The bridge in the foreground goes over Liberty Ave, with the photographer on the Herron Ave bridge. AAA Scrap Iron & Metal is on Penn Ave next to the RR bridge.

Aban/Pennsy (Panhandle) 16th Street Yard

(Satellite, the elevated tracks have been replaced by elevated trees.)

The train is passing through the Western Avenue Junction.

Lake States Railway Historical Association posted

B&O 59 with passenger train 7, The Shenandoah at Western Avenue Junction in Chicago, IL October 1947. Robert Milner photo.

If you enjoy the photos and what Lake States is accomplishing, consider joining Lake States or making a donation, or both: https://www.lsrha.org/?page_id=135

Follow us on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/199136368@N06

Follow us Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakestates/?hl=en

Lake States Railway Historical Association shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on the above share
So that curved connection used to have more than one track. And the Western Avenue corridor used to have a small yard instead of trees on its west side. 
 I've seen a few photos of trains on this connection leaving Grand Central Station. But this is the first one I have seen of a train heading to the station.
 https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8630471,-87.6874273,204m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
Bob Lalich: Dennis DeBruler - the yard in the background was PRR's 16th St Yard. It was used for servicing the local industries and for interchange with Soo Line and CGW.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's comment
Thanks. I had forgotten that the Pennsy panhandle used that route to access the north side of Union Station. And I've never seen a name for that yard before. That area certainly used to have a lot of industry.
1953 Englewood Quad @ 24,000

IH: CWP&S West Pullman Yard in Plano Works

(see below for satellite information)

CWP&S = Chicago, West Pullman & Southern

Plano Works was one of International Harvesters plants in Chicago.

Mike Rusnak posted three photos with the comment: "It's good to see some love for the Chicago West Pullman & Southern. Some pictures of mine from the summer of 1971. Switching near the West Pullman International Harvester plant around 121st and Racine. I lived 3 blocks from here and loved watching this guy working. Just realized I have the Trifecta here, a CWP&S switcher, a boxcar and a caboose!"

3

1

2

 

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post

Photos of the IH West Pullman/Plano Works are very rare.

https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../ih-plano-works...

Thanks for confirming that the parallel tracks in the northwest quadrant of the point of intersection of Racine and 121st was a small SWP&S yard. (Loomis Street is along the left side and the Pennsy Panhandled is near the right side of this map excerpt.)

1929 Blue Island Quadrant @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
The corresponding area in a 1938 aerial photo.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post

The corresponding area today.

https://www.google.com/.../@41.6760052,-87.../data=!3m1!1e3

EJ&E West Chicago Yard

(Satellite) I zoomed in on the curve that Mark has in the foreground in the following photo. He was using a really long lens because the Illinois Prairie Path - Geneva Spur Bridge appears a lot closer than it really is.

Mark Llanuza posted
It's the year 2009 a short Frt train called 20 coming into West Chicago

Unlike most railyards today, this yard still has all of its classification tracks. 

Satellite

C&NW's original mainline that headed west towards Galena went along the south side of this EJ&E yard. As you can see in this topo map, that mainline continued southeast and crossed the EJ&E and Washington Street and then turned more East to go through town. That original mainline made it just to Freeport, IL, when C&NW decided to build a more direct mainline from West Chicago towards Omaha. The old mainline became the Freeport Division. It is now UP's Belvidere Subdivision. 

1953 West Chicago Quad @ 1:24,000

Note that a new C&NW wye was added west of the EJ&E route to connect the Belvidere/Freeport branch to the mainline and UP's West Chicago Yard with more gentle curves. But I was shocked to see that it still has the CB&Q connection in the lower-right corner to the C&NW route. That was removed decades ago. I fired up Google Earth and confirmed that the CB&Q connection is already gone in the oldest usable image, 1993. That image also shows that the new wye has been constructed and that the old mainline no longer crossed the EJ&E and Washington Street.

1998 West Chicago Quad @ 1:24,000

Looking at a satellite image, I noticed the 1998 topo map doesn't have the connection that has been added between UP going to the West and EJ&E going to the South. But that is not an error because, according to Google Earth, that connection still doesn't exist in 1998. Google Earth shows that that connection was built prior to Mar 2002.

Satellite

Looking again at the 1953 map, the junction of the CB&Q and EJ&E was JA Tower and the crossings of C&NW and EJ&E was JB (new mainline) and JC (old mainline).

1930 (PATH+CRCX)/Penn Bridges over Hackensack River at Kearny+JJersey City, NJ

1894 Passenger: (Bridge Hunter)

1930 Passenger: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; B&T; Satellite)

1894 Freight: (Bridge Hunter)

1930 Freight: (Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; HAER; B&T; Satellite)

CRCX = Conrail Shared Assets Operations

PATH = Port Authority Trans-Hudson

 

1 of 13 photos posted by Bridges & Tunnels
LEFT: Hackensack River PATH Bridge; CENTER: Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch Bridge and c. 1930 Wittpenn Bridge; RIGHT: c. 2021 Wittpenn Bridge

The Pennsylvania Railroad originally had two routes that crossed the Hackensack River. The northern crossing was the freight route that went to Harsimus Cove terminal on the Hudson River. It is now operated by CRCX. The southern route was Pennsy's 1858 route where passenger trains terminated at a 5-track station and ferry at today's Exchange Place, and that route is now owned by PATH. The War Department forced the Pennsy to replace their swing bridges with lift bridges, which were built during 1928-30. [NJ-outreach, academic-timeline] (The Pennsy now has a third route that they opened in 1910 that uses the Portal Bridge across the Hackensack River. That route is now owned by Amtrak and it is part of the Northeast Corridor.)

NJ-lift-bridges, p29
[The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad built tunnels under the Hudson River that connected the railroad ferry terminals on the west side of the river to stations in Manhattan.]

Jonathan Konopka posted
This is the PATH Lift Bridge, which connects the cities of Kearny and Jersey City in New Jersey. It is a vertical lift bridge that was built in 1900 and carries the PATH’s Newark-World Trade Center rapid transit line over the Hackensack River.
Geoffrey Moreland: Talk about bridges! Are they still there?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Geoffrey's comment
It looks like the road bridge is being replaced.
https://www.google.com/.../@40.7370243,-74.../data=!3m1!1e3

HAER NJ,9-KEAR,3--2
2. AERIAL VIEW OF THE VERTICAL LIFT BRIDGES SPANNING THE HACKENSACK RIVER, LOOKING NORTHEAST. THE PATH TRANSIT BRIDGE IS IN THE FOREGROUND, WITH THE CONRAIL (HAER No. NJ-43), NEWARK TURNPIKE, AND ERIE & LACKAWANNA RAILROAD (HAER No. NJ-42) BRIDGES BEHIND IT - Path Transit System Bridge, Spanning Hackensack River, Kearny, Hudson County, NJ

HAER NJ,9-KEAR,3--5
5. AERIAL VIEW OF THE PATH TRANSIT SYSTEM BRIDGE LOOKING SOUTHEAST. TO THE RIGHT ARE THE NEWARK TURNPIKE AND THE CONRAIL BRIDGE (HAER No. NJ-43). THE PULASKI SKYWAY (HAER No. NJ-34) IS IN THE BACKGROUND

Michael Froio Photography posted
Former Pennsylvania Railroad Hackensack River movable bridges. Two sprawling lift spans designed by Waddell & Hardesty carry the PRR’s busy passenger and freight lines to Exchange Place and Harsimus Cove, respectively, on two different structures. The passenger line (overhead foreground) crosses the river at 166’ on a 325’ long Parker Truss lift span, while the freight line (visible in the distance) cross the channel on a 206’ long Parker truss just a mere 13’ above high water. The variation in height for the freight line was granted by the US Army Corp of Engineers so as not to interfere with the PRR’s operations in the adjacent Meadows Yard, which would have required considerable alterations if the freight bridge was built to current river clearance specifications. Construction began at the end of 1928 and took less than 22 months to complete at a cost $9 million combined. The first train to cross the passenger bridge was an eastbound on November 2, 1930. The freight bridge opened two days later.
Mike Froio shared

NJ-lift-bridges, p29

HAER NJ,9-KEAR,1--1
1. AERIAL VIEW OF THE CONRAIL BRIDGE FROM THE SOUTH. THE PATH TRANSIT BRIDGE (HAER No. NJ-44) IS VISIBLE IN THE FOREGROUND, AND THE NEWARK TURNPIKE IS BEYOND - Conrail Bridge, Spanning Hackensack River, Kearny, Hudson County, NJ

PATH is on the right and CRCX is on the left.

Street View

 

New Jersey Department of Transportation posted
Bridge Under A Bridge. The third and final arch for the Portal North Bridge successfully made its way up the Hackensack River on Saturday, February 15, seen here passing through the PATH and Conrail bridges just before passing the Route 7/Wittpenn Bridge.

CRCX is left center.

James Groce, Jan 2022

This topo map shows how the freight bridge connected the Meadows Yard with their terminal facilities on the Hudson River. As we have come to expect, the Meadows Yard is now an intermodal yard. CSX now owns this one.

1947 Jersey City Quad @ 1:24,000

Pennsy had an even bigger freight terminal further south in Jersey City called Greenville Yard.

1947 Jersey City Quad @ 1:24,000

The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad built the tubes under the Hudson River that are now used by PATH. H&M worked with the Pennsy to use their 1858 passenger train route to operate all the way to the Pennsy Newark Station.

Satellite

River Rail Photo posted
[LEFT: Hackensack River PATH Bridge; RIGHT: Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch Bridge]

A Gift For Conrail Day on Conrail. On April 1, 1976, the Reading Railroad, which had been founded as the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road in 1833, became part of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). Conrail was created to rescue the bankrupt northeast railroading industry, and was later privatized and taken over, but April 1 is still celebrated as "Conrail Day". Norfolk Southern Corporation perhaps coincided the re-release of the Reading Railroad Heritage Unit 1067 (SD70ACe, EMD) after rehabilitation and repainting at the Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania for this day, sending it east on Train 22X the previous night. On April 1, 2023, it traveled over the trackage of the current day descendant of that company, Conrail Shared Assets, arriving and leaving on the same day with its "Bee Line Service" paint scheme restored to its bright yellow and green.

The unit is seen leading Train 22X over the Hackensack River from Kearny into Jersey City, New Jersey with NS 9575 (C40-9W, GE) and BNSF 6346 (ES44AC, GE). After traveling overnight from 47th Street Yard in Chicago, Illinois, it will soon arrive at its destination, the Croxton Intermodal Facility.

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

[Specifically]

Rob Danner: The first Charter of the Philadelphia & Reading also happened to be on April 1st, 1833.
Robert Thomson: Hack Bridge in Newark , I was &B foreman ,myself an my gang maintained an repaired it for 33yrs.
Dennis DeBruler: This is the first photo that I have seen of the freight bridge that is not obscured by the old road bridge. The new Wittpenn would be out-of-frame to the right.
Robert Thomson: Dennis DeBruler yup
J.B. Rail Photog shared
River Rail Photo shared