Park Avenue 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.

Park Avenue Bridge

Carries                                   3 tracks of the Metro-North Railroad

Crosses                                  Harlem River

Locale                                    Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City

Design                                   Vertical lift bridge

Clearance below                    25 ft (7.6 m). (closed) and 170 ft (52 m). (open)

Opening date                        1956

History

The first bridge on this site was constructed by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford 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 fifty feet. It was very busy. By the 1880s, the bridge was crossed by more than 200 trains a day. The 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 bridge was built in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers' project to build the Harlem River Ship Canal. The Park Avenue railroad viaduct south of 97th street was also built at the same time. While the bridge was being built, a temporary bridge was built and the old span was demolished. When the new bridge was finished, it had a 300-foot (91 m)-long steel truss span supported by masonry piers. The new span had a vertical clearance of 25 feet (7.6 m). Between 1954 and 1956, the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad built a third rail bridge on this site. The new bridge has four tracks and consists of two parallel double track spans, 340 feet (100 m) long. It has 25 feet (7.6 m) of clearance when closed and 135 when open. During the 1960s, the bridge came under the ownership of several different companies, including Penn Central Railroad. Today, Metro-North operates it.