Spuyten Duyvil Bridge

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Spuyten Duyvil Bridge
350px
Circle Line boat crossing bridge, 2014
Carries Amtrak Empire Corridor (1 track)
Crosses Spuyten Duyvil Creek
Locale Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City
Characteristics
Design Railroad swing bridge
Total length 610 feet (190 m)[1]
Longest span 286 feet (87 m)[2]
Clearance below 5 feet (1.5 m)[1]
History
Opened 1900

The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is a railroad swing bridge that carries Amtrak's Empire Corridor line across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx, in New York City. The bridge is located at the northern tip of Manhattan where the Spuyten Duyvil Creek meets the Hudson River, approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) to the west of the Henry Hudson Bridge. It was built to carry two tracks, but now carries only a single track on the east side of the bridge.[2]

A wooden railroad bridge across the Spuyten Duyvil was first constructed by the New York & Hudson River Railroad in 1849.[3] The current steel bridge was designed by Robert Giles and constructed in 1900; the piers rest on pile foundations in the riverbed.[1][4] Trains stopped running across the bridge in 1982 and the following year the bridge was damaged by a vessel and was left unable to close.[5]

The bridge was rehabilitated in the late 1980s and Amtrak's Empire Service began using the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge on April 7, 1991, following the completion of the Empire Connection. This involved the conversion of the abandoned West Side Line to accommodate passenger service and connect with Pennsylvania Station. Up until then, Amtrak trains traveling between New York and Albany had utilized Grand Central Terminal.[1][6][7]

The bridge is used by approximately 30 trains a day and is opened over 1,000 times per year, primarily during the summer months for Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and recreational vessels.[2]

Incidents

  • On the evening of February 16, 2004, an 80-year-old woman mistakenly drove her car onto the bridge from the Bronx side of the river and was hit by a Toronto-bound Amtrak train. Although the passenger train carried the automobile for a distance of 250 feet (76 m) along the tracks, the woman survived the crash.[8]
  • During the early morning hours of October 24, 2010, a fire broke out on the bridge, suspending train service until later that evening.[9][10]

Gallery

  • An aerial view showing the Henry Hudson Bridge (foreground) and the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge

  • Spuyten Duyvil Bridge from Inwood Hill Park.jpg

    A view of the bridge from the south along the Hudson River

  • Spuyten Duyvil The Bronx end of the bridge when the swing is open

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links


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