Eighth Street Bridge is a road bridge over the

Passaic River Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, ...

northeastern New Jersey The Gateway Region is the primary urbanized area of the northeastern section of New Jersey. It is anchored by Newark, the state's most populous city. While sometimes known as the Newark metropolitan area, it is part of the New York metropolitan ...

, United States. It connects the City of

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...

Passaic County Passaic County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of Passaic County was enumerated at 524,118, an increase of 22,892 (4.6%) from t ...

with the Borough of Wallington in

Bergen County Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.County Route 507 County Route 507 (CR 507) is a County routes in New Jersey, county highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The highway extends from Harrison Avenue (County Route 508 (New Jersey), CR 508) on the Kearny, New Jersey, Kearny-Harrison, New Jersey, H ...

in Wallington. Originally opened in 1915 as a

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- or ...

, the bridge was fixed in place in 1977. The Eighth Street Bridge was closed to traffic permanently on July 24, 2017 so work could begin on its replacement, which was completed in 2019.

Location and operations

Eighth Street Bridge passes over the

from the

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current reducing the carrying ...

Newark Bay Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, t ...

, at the

and

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county line Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

. The lower of the Passaic River downstream of the

Dundee Dam The Dundee Canal was an industrial canal in Clifton and Passaic in Passaic County, New Jersey. It was built between 1858 and 1861 and ran parallel to the Passaic River. It supplied hydropower and water for manufacturing. There was interest by some ...

is tidally influenced and channelized. Once one of the most heavily used waterways in the

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the system of navigable water ...

, it remains partially

navigable A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and calm enough for a water vessel (e.g. boats) to pass safely. Such a navigable water is called a ''waterway'', and is preferably with few obstructions against dir ...

for commercial

marine traffic Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throu ...

. The original bridge had been in fixed closed position in 1977. Only bridge at MP 11.7 and those downstream from it are required by federal regulations to open.

Design and construction of first bridge

Built in 1914, the Eight Street Bridge was a Warren

pony 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 s ...

bridge, originally a

. The total length with a deck width was . The length of largest span: It followed the design of

Strauss Bascule Bridge Company Joseph Baermann Strauss (January 9, 1870 – May 16, 1938) was an American structural engineer who revolutionized the design of bascule bridges. He was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge. Life, beginnings and death ...

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and was fabricated by the F.R. Long - W.G. Broadhurst Company of Hackensack. The main span was an long is a Strauss articulated overhead counterweight single leaf bascule span. The entire bridge is supported on a concrete substructure. It originally was composed of built-up members as were the

trunnion A trunnion (from Old French "''trognon''", trunk) is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development. Alternatively, a trunnion is a shaft that positions a ...

columns, braced counterweight tower, and counterweight linkages that permitted the counterweight to pivot and move parallel to itself during operation of the bridge. The bridge was significantly rehabilitated 1965, when a steel grid deck was installed. Between 1976 and 1979 the

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's shanty was demolished and operating controls for the electric-motor powered span were removed and the bridge was fixed in the closed position. The gear sets and shafts were left in place as was the chain-operated manual operation. The original metal sidewalk railings are intact. The 300-ton counterweight, used to open the bridge, began to crumble onto passing cars and had to be removed. The bridge carried a two-lane road, two sidewalks, and a utility pipe from 8th Street in

to Main Avenue in Wallington. As of 2014, was used by about 6,500 vehicles per day. The

State Historic Preservation Office The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is a state governmental function created by the United States federal government in 1966 under Section 101 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The purposes of a SHPO include surveying an ...

determined in that Eighth Street Bridge was of historical and engineering merit to be included in the

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(ID#3426) and federal register of historic places.

Replacement

The 1914 bridge had seriously deteriorated and as of 2015 was in a state of severe disrepair and considered to be structurally deficient and

fracture critical The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below them. That is similar to the grade-crossing ...

. There were 13 ton, 19 ton and 30 ton weight restrictions. Plans to replace the bridge had been in place since 2012. Funding was provided by state and federal sources. Land acquisition of parcels in the vicinity of the bridge has been mired in legal

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

battles have hampered replacement. After delays of several months, the bridge was closed to traffic on July 24, 2017. The new Eighth Street Bridge with two lanes of traffic in each direction was completed in August 2019 with the assistance of $15 million in aid from the federal government

References

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, place =

, bridge = Eighth Street Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = Passaic Street Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream = Market Street Bridge , downstream signs = Bridges over the Passaic River Bascule bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1915 Wallington, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Passaic, New Jersey Bridges in Bergen County, New Jersey Bridges in Passaic County, New Jersey Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Bergen County, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Passaic County, New Jersey Steel bridges in the United States Warren truss bridges in the United States

Location and operations

Design and construction of first bridge

Replacement

See also

References