The Delair Bridge (officially the Delair Memorial Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge with a
vertical-lift section that crosses the
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...
between
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 ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, and
Pennsauken Township,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, just south of the
Betsy Ross Bridge
The Betsy Ross Bridge, also known as the Ross Memorial Bridge, is a continuous steel truss bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey. It was built from 1969 to 1974, and opened in April 1976, du ...
. The two-track bridge is part of
Conrail Shared Assets Operations
Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Area ...
and is jointly used by
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
and
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
freight trains, as well as by the
New Jersey Transit
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...
Atlantic City Line
The Atlantic City Line (ACL) is a commuter rail line operated by NJ Transit (NJT) in the United States between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey, operating along the corridor of the White Horse Pike. It runs over trackage ...
service.
History
The Delair Bridge, built by the
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) in 1895–1896, was the first bridge of any sort between Philadelphia and New Jersey. The steel span connected PRR tracks in North Philadelphia to southern New Jersey. It consisted of three fixed
Pennsylvania 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, compression, or ...
spans and a through-truss
swing-span drawbridge
A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...
totaling . Approach trestles of on the Pennsylvania side and on the New Jersey side bring its total length to .
Starting in 1958, the PRR converted the bridge into a
vertical-lift span to increase clearance for river traffic. The movable link was floated into place in one piece to facilitate installation and minimize delay. Work was completed in 1960. The Delair Bridge was the longest and heaviest double-track lift bridge in the world at the time. Note that the single-track
Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge
The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge (also known as the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge), a vertical lift bridge in Bourne, Massachusetts near Buzzards Bay, carries railroad traffic across the Cape Cod Canal, connecting Cape Cod with the mainland.
Des ...
is longer.
The bridge was also electrified in the late 1930s, allowing freight trains hauled by
electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...
s to access the
Pavonia Yard
Pavonia Yard is a Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) rail yard in Camden, New Jersey.
The yard begins just north of where the Vineland Secondary tracks cross the Cooper River near the intersection of State and Federal Streets, and continue ...
in
Camden, New Jersey
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...
, from the
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, a ...
. Electrification was removed by January, 1967 but was restored in May 1973. However, Conrail ceased electric freight operations in 1981 and removed the wires several years later.
Passenger train traffic on the bridge ceased in 1969 when
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines
The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Rea ...
service was cut to
Lindenwold station
Lindenwold station is a train station in Lindenwold, New Jersey, United States, served by the NJ Transit Atlantic City Line regional rail service and the rapid transit PATCO Speedline. Lindenwold is the eastern terminus of PATCO; the system's he ...
after the completion of the
PATCO Speedline
The PATCO Speedline (signed in Philadelphia as the Lindenwold Line and also known colloquially as the PATCO High Speed Line) is a rapid transit route operated by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), which runs between Philadelphia, Pe ...
, but was restored in 1989 when Amtrak began the ''
Atlantic City Express'' service. Amtrak service ended in 1995, but
New Jersey Transit
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...
Atlantic City Line
The Atlantic City Line (ACL) is a commuter rail line operated by NJ Transit (NJT) in the United States between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey, operating along the corridor of the White Horse Pike. It runs over trackage ...
service has used the bridge continuously since 1993.
The bridge's southern track was formerly reserved for freight traffic, and the northern track only used for the Atlantic City Line. As part of the
Pennsauken Transit Center
Pennsauken Transit Center is a New Jersey Transit train station in Pennsauken Township, in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. It serves as an intermodal transfer station between the light rail River Line and the commuter rail Atlanti ...
project, a station complex where the
River LINE passes under the Delair Bridge's eastern approach, platforms were built on both tracks. Both tracks are now used by both passenger and freight trains.
21st century rehabilitation
![NJT 6013 coming off the Delair Bridge, May 2015](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/NJT_6013_coming_off_the_Delair_Bridge%2C_May_2015.jpg)
In December 2011, an $18.5 million
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery
Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE), previously called
Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD), and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), is a supplementary ...
(TIGER) grant was awarded to
South Jersey Port Corporation
South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) is an independent public port authority which operates the ports along the eastern banks of Delaware River in the Delaware Valley region of southern New Jersey in the United States. Based in Camden, SJPC was ...
by the
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...
, partially for rehabilitation of the bridge. The improvements were completed.
See also
*
*
List of crossings of the Delaware River
This is a list of bridges and other crossings of the Delaware River from the Atlantic Ocean upstream to its source(s).
Crossings
See also
* George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
{{De ...
References
External links
*
*
Delair Bridgeat "Workshop of the World"
Video of rebuilding by Michael Froio 2015
{{New Jersey Transit Rail
Railroad bridges in New Jersey
Vertical lift bridges in the United States
Vertical lift bridges in New Jersey
Bridges completed in 1896
Railroad bridges in Pennsylvania
Bridges in Philadelphia
Bridges in Camden County, New Jersey
Bridges over the Delaware River
Pennsylvania Railroad bridges
NJ Transit bridges
Pennsauken Township, New Jersey
Historic American Engineering Record in Philadelphia
Towers in Pennsylvania
Steel bridges in the United States
Pennsylvania truss bridges in the United States
Interstate railroad bridges in the United States
South Jersey Port Corporation