Park Avenue Bridge (New York City)
| Park Avenue Bridge | |
|---|---|
From downriver
|
|
| Carries | 4 tracks of the Metro-North Railroad |
| Crosses | Harlem River |
| Locale | Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City |
| Maintained by | Metropolitan Transportation Authority |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Vertical lift bridge |
| Longest span | 340 ft (100 m) |
| Clearance below | 25 ft (7.6 m). (closed) and 135 ft (41 m). (open) |
| History | |
| Opened | 1956 (replacing 1897 bridge) |
The Park Avenue Bridge is a vertical lift bridge carrying the Metro-North Railroad across the Harlem River between the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City. The average weekday ridership on Metro-North Railroad is 265,000.
The first bridge on this site was constructed by the New York and Harlem Railroad in 1841. It was composed of four 90-foot (27 m)-long box truss spans, three of which were fixed iron spans, while the remaining span was a wooden swing span. In the closed position, the bridge had a clearance of only seven feet above mean high water. Masonry piers supported the four box-truss spans. In 1867, the wooden drawbridge was replaced with an iron one that gave a clearance of 50 feet. By the 1880s, the bridge was crossed by more than 200 trains a day.
The 1867 bridge was soon made obsolete by heavy traffic and dredging of the Harlem River Ship Canal. Alfred P. Boller worked with the railroad to create a new four-tracked swing bridge. The railroad and the city split the cost. The new swing bridge was built in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers' project to build the Harlem River Ship Canal. The Park Avenue railroad viaduct was also extended north of 115th Street at the same time. While the bridge was being built, a temporary bridge was built and the old span was demolished. The bridge opened in 1897, and the project included construction of a long new viaduct to raise the level of the rail line between 115th Street and the river. The new bridge had a 300-foot-long (91 m) steel truss span supported by masonry piers. When closed, the vertical clearance was 25 feet (7.6 m).
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