Newark Drawbridge | |
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View with Stickel Bridge in the background
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Coordinates | 40°44′51″N 74°09′57″W / 40.7474°N 74.1659°WCoordinates: 40°44′51″N 74°09′57″W / 40.7474°N 74.1659°W |
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 |
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.
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. By1855 it built its own bridge across the Passaic. By the early 1860s, the railroad had established alignment across the Kearny Meadows and began using the Long Dock Tunnel to Hoboken.