The Anacostia Railroad Bridge is a
vertical lift railroad bridge crossing the
Anacostia River
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, United States. The bridge is owned by
CSX Transportation.
History
The
Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road, a subsidiary of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, built the first railroad bridge on this site, which opened on July 2, 1872. Successor
Penn Central Railroad
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...
rebuilt the bridge in 1972.
The bridge currently carries
freight train
Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...
s. It is near the point where the
RF&P Subdivision
The RF&P Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation. It runs from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia, over lines previously owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. ...
becomes the
Landover Subdivision, with a connection to the
Alexandria Extension just to the east of the bridge. Originally the bridge supported three
tracks. This was later reduced to two tracks, and then one track in 2006.
Operations
The lift span is occasionally raised for boat traffic. The lift is controlled by a CSX bridge tender located nearby at Benning Rail Yard.
Incidents
On November 10, 2007, a
unit train
A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route.
They are dist ...
carrying
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
derailed and caused the collapse of the northern span of the bridge.
CSX had briefly closed the bridge in 2006 after it found high levels of corrosion and made repairs, and after the 2007 accident it again closed the bridge. The southern span was reopened 24 hours after the accident.
See also
*
Amtrak Railroad Anacostia Bridge
The Amtrak Railroad Anacostia Bridge is a railway bridge that crosses the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It carries Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and MARC's Penn Line passenger rail traffic. The bridge was damaged by the 1933 Chesapeake–P ...
*
Landover Subdivision
References
Railway bridges in Washington, D.C.
Bridges over the Anacostia River
CSX Transportation bridges
Bridges completed in 1872
Vertical lift bridges in the United States
Metal bridges in the United States
1872 establishments in Washington, D.C.
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