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Newark Drawbridge
Coordinates	40°44′51″N 74°09′57″W / 40.7474°N 74.1659°W / 40.7474; -74.1659
Carries	NJ Transit
Crosses	Passaic River
Locale	Newark and Harrison Northeastern New Jersey
Other name(s)	Morristown Line Bridge
Owner	New Jersey Transit
Maintained by	NJT
ID number	NJT 247
Characteristics
Design	Swing bridge
Total length	870.1 feet (265.2 m)
Width	30.2 feet (9.2 m)
Longest span	221.1 feet (67.4 m)
Clearance below	20 feet (6.1 m) (low tide)
History
Opened	1903
Location

The Newark Drawbridge, also known as the Morristown Line Bridge, is a railroad bridge on the Passaic River between Newark and Harrison, New Jersey. The swing bridge is the 11th bridge from the river's mouth at Newark Bay and is 5.85 miles (9.41 km) upstream from it. Opened in 1903, it is owned and operated by New Jersey Transit.

History

Rail service across the river was generally oriented to bringing passengers and freight from the points west over the Hackensack Meadows to Bergen Hill, where tunnels and cuts provided access to terminals on the Hudson River.

In 1836, the Morris and Essex Railroad established a right-of-way from the west at Orange to Newark, from where it used the New Jersey Rail Road at Centre Street to cross the river and travel east to its terminal at Paulus Hook on the waterfront in Jersey City. By 1855 it built its own bridge across the Passaic. By the early 1860s, the railroad had established the alignment across the Kearny Meadows and began using the Long Dock Tunnel to Hoboken.

In the early 1900s railroad elevated the line approaching the river which previously ran at grade along Division Street in Newark and built the current bridge. Completed in an earlier phase, the bridge was later shifted 35 feet (11 m) upstream on the new alignment.

In 1945, the Morris and Essex Railroad officially merged into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. DL&W merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960 to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, which was absorbed by Conrail in 1976; New Jersey Transit has operated all passenger service since 1983.

Operations

The lower 17 miles (27 km) of the ninety-mile (140 km) long Passaic River downstream of the Dundee Dam is tidally influenced and navigable, but due to the limited maritime traffic the bridge is infrequently required to open. Since 1998 rules regulating drawbridge operations require a 24-hour notice. The bridge at milepost 7.48 is used exclusively by New Jersey Transit rail operations for the Montclair-Boonton Line and both branches of the Morris and Essex Lines, the Morristown Line and the Gladstone Branch. It is situated just east of Newark Broad Street Station, the first stop after the lines travelling west from Hoboken Terminal and Secaucus Junction converge. In 2004, NJT contracted a study to determine the condition of the bridge and to begin long-term planning for its future replacement. In 2009-2010, the bridge underwent $23 million project for maintenance and repairs, funded by the agency and performed by Skanska.

See also

• Lower Hack Lift
• Bergen Tunnels
• Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
• List of crossings of the Lower Passaic River
• List of bridges, tunnels, and cuts in Hudson County, New Jersey
• NJT movable bridges

References

1. ^ "Lower Passaic River Restoration Project Commercial Navigation Analysis (2nd Revision)" (PDF). United States Army Corps of Engineers. July 2, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
2. "The Morris and Essex" (PDF), The New York Times, June 6, 1854, retrieved August 5, 2012
3. "Fatal Railroad Accident" (PDF), The New York Times, December 3, 1855, retrieved August 5, 2012
4. "New Steel Bridge to Cross the Passaic" (PDF). The New York Times. April 19, 1901.
5. "Drawbridge Operation Regulations; Passaic River, NJ (Coast Guard 33 CFR Part 117 [CGD01–97–020] RIN 2115–AE47" (PDF). Rules and Regulations. Federal Register /Vol. 63, No. 120. June 23, 1998. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
6. "Newark Drawbridge Engineering Study Approved" (Press release). New Jersey Transit. April 27, 2004. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
7. "Transportation Capital Program Fiscal Year 2008". NJDOT. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. "Skanska in the US" (PDF).

External links

• Newark Drawbridge on Flickr
• Passaic River Railroad Bridge at Bridgehunter.com
• William Stickel Memorial Bridge and NJ Transit Railroad Bridge image by Ronald C. Saari

v t e NJ Transit Rail Operations
Hoboken Division	Bergen County Line      Main Line      Meadowlands Rail Line      Montclair-Boonton Line Morris & Essex Lines (     Morristown Line and      Gladstone Branch)      Pascack Valley Line      Port Jervis Line
Newark Division	Atlantic City Line      North Jersey Coast Line      Northeast Corridor Line      Princeton Branch      Raritan Valley Line
Connections	Aldene Connection Harold Interlocking Lehigh Line Connection Kearny Connection Montclair Connection Port Morris Junction Secaucus Junction Waterfront Connection
Current rolling stock	EMD GP40PH-2 ALP-46 ALP-45DP PL42AC Comet coaches Comet V MultiLevel coaches Arrow multiple units
Bridges and tunnels	Beach Bridge Bergen Tunnels Brielle Draw Connecting Railway Bridge DB Draw Delair Bridge Dock Bridge East River Tunnels HX Draw Lower Hack Lift Lyndhurst Draw Morgan Draw Morrisville–Trenton Railroad Bridge Newark Drawbridge North River Tunnels Oceanport Draw Portal Bridge Rahway River Bridge Raritan Bay Drawbridge Raritan River Bridge Roseville Tunnel Shark River Draw Upper Hack Lift WR Draw
Stations and yards	List of stations Historic stations County Yard Morrisville Yard Sunnyside Yard
Proposed lines	Lackawanna Cut-Off Monmouth Ocean Middlesex Line West Trenton Line
Other topics	Access to the Region's Core Atlantic City Express Service Glassboro–Camden Line Gateway Program Mid-Line Loop Northern Branch Passaic–Bergen–Hudson Transit Sawtooth Bridges Train to the Game Former stations Proposed stations

Crossings of the Passaic River
Upstream William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge Newark Drawbridge NJ Transit Downstream Bridge Street Bridge

• Bridges completed in 1903
• Bridges in Newark, New Jersey
• Bridges in Hudson County, New Jersey
• Railroad bridges in New Jersey
• Swing bridges in the United States
• Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad bridges
• NJ Transit bridges
• Bridges over the Passaic River
• Steel bridges in the United States
• 1903 establishments in New Jersey