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An orphan bridge is a roadway bridge that crosses over abandoned
An orphan bridge is a roadway bridge that crosses over abandoned railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
rights-of-way and which is no longer owned or maintained by any railroad. Examples include the bridges that crossed over predecessor railroads that were conveyed into Conrail
Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busi ...
in 1976. At the time, Conrail argued in U.S. court that these overhead bridges were not part of the rail rights-of-way that were conveyed to it at the time of the merger. As the railroads that initially built the bridges and maintained them no longer existed, it was argued, successfully, that, in essence, no legal entity owned them and that, as a result, they were "orphan" bridges.
An example of this is the never-used Conrail bridge which parallels Delaware Avenue and crosses U.S. Route 9W in Kingston, NY.
Bridges
Real property law
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