The CSX Susquehanna River Bridge is a railroad bridge that carries
CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision
The Philadelphia Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The line runs from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, southwest to Baltimore, Maryland, along a forme ...
across the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
between
Havre de Grace and
Perryville, Maryland
Perryville is a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The population was 4,361 at the 2010 census. The town is located near an access for Interstate 95, on the north side of the outlet of the Susquehanna River.
History
Perryville was fir ...
, via
Garrett Island. It was built in 1907-10 by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
(B&O) on the same alignment as an 1886 B&O bridge. Like its predecessor, it was the longest continuous bridge on the B&O system.
History
1866-1884: PW&B Bridge
The 1866 completion of the nearby
Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore (PW&B) railroad bridge allowed trains between
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
to cross the Susquehanna without the aid of a
ferryboat
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
for the first time.
The B&O used
trackage rights
Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies.
Operating
Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may con ...
on the PW&B to operate trains to Philadelphia and
Jersey City
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.[Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...]
(PRR). When the B&O's president
John W. Garrett
John Work Garrett (July 31, 1820 – September 26, 1884), was an American merchant turned banker who became president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1858 and led the railroad for nearly three decades. The B&O became one of the most ...
was outbid by the PRR for control of the PW&B in early 1881, Garrett realized that B&O's Philadelphia and New York connections were in jeopardy. B&O began planning immediately for its own line between Baltimore and Philadelphia, where a connection to the friendly
Reading Railroad
The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail.
Commonly calle ...
would provide access to the New York area.
B&O passenger trains continued crossing the river on the PW&B until the trackage rights agreement expired on October 12, 1884.
1884-1907: First B&O Bridge
B&O's new line, the
Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad
The Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad was a railroad line built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Maryland-Delaware state line, where it connected with the B&O's Philadelphia Branch to reach Baltimor ...
, was built to higher engineering standards than typical on its system, despite the company's shaky finances.
At the Susquehanna, the B&O resolved to create a bridge that was superior to the PW&B bridge it formerly used. As Garrett wrote in an 1884 report:
It...will be one of the largest and most remarkable structures of its class in the world. It is the determination of the company that it shall be of the most substantial, safe and durable character. It will be in length, above low mean tide, and will rest on eleven granite piers, having their foundations on the bed-rock of the river... The foundations for six of the piers have been difficult, reaching, as they do, a depth of below low water, and necessitating the use of caissons, with air chambers, in which the men, engaged in removing the debris in order to reach bed-rock, have worked under a pressure of .
The bridge consisted of the following segments: a western approach viaduct, four
Whipple deck truss spans, a through truss span over the western navigation channel, a deck truss span, a viaduct over Garrett Island, one and one Whipple deck truss spans, a through truss span over the eastern navigation channel, and finally a eastern approach viaduct. The eastern approach also crossed the PRR's
Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad
The Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad (C&PD) was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It operated a main line between Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Port Deposit, Maryland, generally along the ...
. Unlike the remainder of the Philadelphia line, the bridge contained only a
single track
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
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Songs
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* "Single", by ...
.
[The lengths of the three spans on the eastern side of the river are surmised from the 1914 B&O truss bridge report. The Baltimore Sun article of May 10, 1886, quoted by McCrain says the through truss section is 520 feet. The B&O report assigns this length to one of the deck truss sections instead.]
The bridge cost $1.7 million to construct. It was opened with a ceremonial train on May 11, 1886. Freight operations began on May 25 of that year; passenger operations followed on August 23. The first Washington to New York train to use the new route crossed on December 15. Starting in 1890, passenger trains that used the bridge were marketed under the name
Royal Blue Line.
1908-present: Second B&O Bridge
In the early years of the 20th century, the iron bridges on the Philadelphia line could no longer handle the latest
locomotive
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...
designs at optimal speeds. The Susquehanna Bridge also required an additional track. In November 1907, the
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pitts ...
and Eyre-Shoemaker Company began renovating the structure. Timber
falsework
Falsework consists of temporary structures used in construction to support a permanent structure until its construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself. For arches, this is specifically called centering. Falsework includes temporary su ...
was used to shore up sections of the bridge under construction, allowing construction to proceed with minimal disruption to traffic.
On September 23, 1908, a coal car
derailed on the bridge and struck a mobile crane. The crane collapsed, bringing down the eastern channel through truss, which sank in deep water. One person was injured and 12 cars at the end of the train were lost.
The PRR granted the B&O the right to detour trains over its new
double-track bridge, and so track connections between the B&O and PRR were built at Swan Creek (west of Havre de Grace) and Aiken (near Perryville). At Aiken, the steep grade between the two lines required the use of
helpers. This detour was maintained while the renovations to the Susquehanna Bridge were completed.
Compared to the original bridge, the new bridge has shorter and more numerous deck truss spans.
The
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
is constructed of of steel and can support two tracks.
Pennsylvania through truss
A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension (mechanics), tensi ...
spans are used over both navigation channels.
30 new piers were built; 10 were widened and remodeled. Three of the new piers were sunk in the west channel using the
caisson process.
The renovations cost more than $2 million. The new bridge opened for traffic on January 6, 1910.
Passenger service east of Baltimore ended on April 26, 1958. By 1960, the entire Philadelphia line including the Susquehanna Bridge was single-tracked. Ownership of the bridge later passed to the
Chessie System
Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated und ...
and CSX along with other B&O assets.
Present status
, CSX runs about 24 trains daily on the Philadelphia Subdivision, including
intermodal,
autorack
An autorack, also known as an auto carrier (also car transporter outside the US), is a specialized piece of railroad rolling stock used to transport automobiles and light trucks. Autoracks are used to transport new vehicles from factories to ...
, and general merchandise freights.
See also
*
Notes
References
*
External links
*
{{Crossings navbox
, structure = Bridges
, place =
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
, bridge = CSX Susquehanna River Bridge
, bridge signs =
, upstream =
Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge
The Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge carries Interstate 95 (I-95) over the Susquehanna River between Cecil County and Harford County, Maryland. The toll bridge carries 29 million vehicles annually. It is upstream from the Thomas J. Hatem ...
, upstream signs =
![I-95](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/I-95.svg)
, downstream =
Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge
The Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge is a road bridge in northeast Maryland that crosses the Susquehanna River between Havre de Grace and Perryville via Garrett Island. It carries U.S. Route 40. It is the oldest of the eight toll facilities op ...
, downstream signs =
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridges
Bridges completed in 1886
Bridges completed in 1910
Bridges over the Susquehanna River
CSX Transportation bridges
Buildings and structures in Havre de Grace, Maryland
Railroad bridges in Maryland
Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland
Bridges in Harford County, Maryland
Bridges in Cecil County, Maryland
Steel bridges in the United States
Pratt truss bridges in the United States
1910 establishments in Maryland