Delaware River Viaduct
Coordinates: 40 ° 56 ′ 15 ″ N , 75 ° 6 ′ 20 ″ W.
| Delaware River Viaduct | ||
|---|---|---|
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| use | former railway bridge | |
| Crossing of |
Delaware River ,
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| place | near Columbia, Knowlton Township, New Jersey | |
| construction | Reinforced concrete viaduct | |
| overall length | 443 m | |
| width | 10 m | |
| Number of openings | nine | |
| Longest span | 46 m | |
| height | 20 m | |
| start of building | 1908 | |
| completion | 1910 | |
| opening | December 24, 1911 | |
| Status | without tracks | |
| planner | Abraham Burton Cohen | |
| location | ||
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The Delaware River Viaduct near the small town of Columbia in Knowlton Township, Warren County , New Jersey , USA , is the second of the major railroad viaducts that the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad used as part of the new Lackawanna cut-off in 1908 through Was built in 1910.
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) was in the course of the development of the anthracite coal deposits in the northeast Appalachians , u. a. in Lackawanna County . Their network stretched from New York City to Buffalo on Lake Erie and Oswego on Lake Ontario . At the beginning of the 20th century she had the Lackawanna Cut-Off built, a shortcut with the straightest possible stretches, slight inclines and no level crossings, which increased the speed of trains, shortened travel times and increased the company's profits. This route required long dams and cuts in the terrain as well as large viaducts such as the Paulinskill Viaduct and the Delaware River Viaduct. The even larger Tunkhannock Viaduct was built during the subsequent construction of another shortcut, the Nicholson Cut-Off . These three viaducts were among the first large reinforced concrete bridges and replaced each other as the largest reinforced concrete bridges in the world.
The Delaware River Viaduct crosses the the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey forming Delaware River and Interstate 80 on the New Jersey side, and today by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad used original DL & W track ( Old Road ) and the small local Slateford Road on the Pennsylvania side.
The structure, designed for double-track traffic, was built entirely from reinforced concrete . It is a total of 443 m (1452 ft ) long and has nine openings. On the western side there are two 10.1 m wide simple round arches next to each other as underpasses of Old Road and Slateford Road. This is followed by the architecturally uniform viaduct with five 45.7 m (150 ft) wide arches in the middle and two 36.6 m (120 ft) wide arches at the ends. The arches are emphasized by a surrounding edge. The 10.4 m wide deck girder is elevated by smaller, slender arches on top of the large round arches. The pillars emerge like pilasters and divide the row of arches. Their heads form small terraces next to the railroad tracks at a height of 19.8 m (65 ft) above the river's high water mark. Further east is a separate underpass for Simpson Street.
Train traffic began on Christmas Eve 1911 and lasted until 1979 when the successor company Conrail ceased traffic on the route. Conrail gave up the route completely in 1982 and removed the rails on the bridge in 1989, five years later than on the Paulinskill Viaduct.
Web links
- Delaware River Viaduct on Bridgemeister.com
- Delaware River Viaduct. Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-541
Individual evidence
- ^ Delaware River Viaduct. on Bridgehunter.com