The Hackensack Drawbridge (also known as the HD Draw) was a double-track railroad
movable bridge
A moveable bridge, or movable bridge, is a bridge that moves to allow passage for boats or barges. In American English, the term is synonymous with , and the latter is the common term, but drawbridge can be limited to the narrower, historical d ...
across the mouth of the
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the subur ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' (reporting that the Port of New York Authority was recommending that the bridge be either rebuilt or abandoned because it offered limited clearance) It was operational until 1946, when a steamship crashed into it.
Built and maintained by the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), the bridge was part of the Newark and New York Railroad, a rail line characterized as the "costliest railroad" by W. H. Schmidt Jr., a columnist for '' Trains''.Schmidt, W.H. (May 1946), "Costliest Railroad Now Half Abandoned", '' Trains'', pg. 52. Opened on July 23, 1869, the line was routed between terminals at
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
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* Niagara-on-the ...
and
Jersey City
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.ferries to New York. It also crossed 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, ...
and the Kearny Point peninsula. Freight cars regularly traversed the bridge to deliver to various industries in Harrison.
Description
From the west side of the rail via tunnel, four tracks converged into three, and then into two tracks to pass over the Hackensack Drawbridge.''Railway signaling and communications'', pg. 465. By 1913 the rail line, including the bridges across the rivers, was raised about to avoid conflicts with maritime traffic in the newly developing
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
The draw span of the
PD Draw
PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to:
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* ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper
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over the Passaic had been relocated upstream to create another bridge on a new alignment in 1912.
By 1922, plans were made to improve the drawbridge's railway signal layout, increasing the number of interlocking levers, ground signals and bridge signals. The drawbridge tower employed three levermen.
In 1897, a train carrying nearly 200 people derailed while crossing the bridge; there were no injuries. In 1940, the Port of New York Authority (now
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized ...
) cited the bridge as a navigational menace and called for its replacement. With war impending, the War Department in 1941 asked CNJ to replace the swing bridge with a
vertical lift
Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
* Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down
* Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting ...
to afford better access to the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company on Kearny Point. Plans were made, but the shortage of steel prevented the project from being constructed.
Steamship collision
On February 3, 1946, SS ''Jagger Seam'', a collier, crashed into the drawbridge, shearing off two of the bridge's spans. The collision was the result of a mix-up in signals between the collier and a tug. It was later determined that mishandling on the part of the ''Jagger Seam'' was the cause of the accident. Initial estimates indicated that rail service over the Hackensack would be delayed for three months, with the CNJ projecting that it would take that long to procure enough steel to reconstruct the bridge. After the accident, trains continued to run from Kearny to
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
.French, pg. 32. Similarly, service east of the drawbridge continued to run between the West Side Avenue station and
Communipaw Terminal
The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing ...
.''Railway age'', pg. 329.
In October 1946, the CNJ asked the
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
(ICC) for permission to abandon the line.
Without any further funding for repair of the Hackensack Drawbridge and with the route severed in two, the railroad was deemed "half-abandoned". The ICC sympathized with the CNJ, saying "'twas a pity". While the Newark Branch operated until 1967, service in Jersey City was discontinued. Ultimately, the bridge was dismantled, but remains of its
piers Piers may refer to:
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are still visible in the Hackensack River.
See also
*
Timeline of Jersey City area railroads
__NOTOC__
For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater (the Northern end of the line along the Hudson River), South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east o ...
*
List of bridges, tunnels, and cuts in Hudson County, New Jersey
This is a list of vehicular and rail bridges, tunnels, and cuts in Hudson County, New Jersey. Located in the northeastern part of New Jersey Hudson lies at the heart of the Port of New York and New Jersey and is a major crossroads of the New Yor ...
*
List of crossings of the Hackensack River
The Hackensack River courses southward for approximately through Rockland County in New York and Bergen and Hudson counties in northeastern New Jersey, forming the border of the latter two for part of its length. Its source, as identified by th ...