The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is a railroad

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

that spans the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The bridge is located at the northern tip of Manhattan where the Spuyten Duyvil Creek meets the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

, approximately to the west of the

Henry Hudson Bridge The Henry Hudson Bridge is a steel arch toll bridge in New York City across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. It connects Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx with Inwood in Manhattan to the south, via the Henry Hudson Parkway ( NY 9A). On the Manhattan side ...

. The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge was built to carry two tracks but now carries only a single track on the eastern side of the span. It is part of the

West Side Line The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north vi ...

, and is used by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

trains traveling along the

Empire Connection The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via ...

. The span is used by approximately 30 trains a day and is opened over 1,000 times per year, primarily during the summer months for Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and recreational vessels.

History

A wooden railroad drawbridge across the Spuyten Duyvil was first constructed by the New York & Hudson River Railroad in 1849. The railroad continued southward along the

St. John's Park Terminal St. John's Park was a 19th-century park and square, and the neighborhood of townhouses around it, in what is now the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The square was bounded by Varick Street, Laight Street, Hudson Str ...

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

and carried both freight and passenger service. The Hudson River Railroad merged with the

New York & Harlem Railroad The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and 18 ...

in 1869, creating the

New York Central & Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

, and most trains started bypassing the bridge, instead going to

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...

. An iron bridge replaced the wooden span by 1895. The current steel bridge was designed by Robert Giles and constructed in 1900. The piers rest on pile foundations in the riverbed. The bridge consists of three fixed sections as well as a swing section, which could swivel nearly 65 degrees and leave a of clearance on each side. The swing span weighed 200 tons and had enough space to fit two tracks. By 1935, there were 70 trains a day using the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge, but after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, usage declined. In 1963, the steam motor that powered the swing span was replaced with an electric motor. The bridge was slightly damaged three years later, when the swing span was struck by a boat, leaving it stuck in the open position for two weeks. Trains stopped running across the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge in 1982 and the following year the bridge was damaged by a vessel and was left unable to close. The bridge was rehabilitated in the late 1980s. Amtrak's '' Empire Service'' began using the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge on April 7, 1991, following the completion of the

. This involved the conversion of the abandoned West Side Line to accommodate passenger service and connect with

Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...

. Until then, Amtrak trains traveling between New York and Albany had utilized

. In June 2018, Amtrak used the ''

Left Coast Lifter ''Left Coast Lifter'' is a floating derrick barge or sheerleg which was built to assist in the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The barge carries a shear legs crane which is the largest barge crane ever used ...

'', one of the world's largest floating cranes, to lift the of the bridge's spans and move them to a barge in order to make fixes to electrical and mechanical components necessitated by damage due to

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

and years of malfunctions and corrosion. During the repairs, trains which had originated in

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

and used the bridge originated instead from

, bypassing the bridge. The trains returned to their regular routing to Penn Station on September 4.

Incidents

*On the evening of February 16, 2004, an 80-year-old woman mistakenly drove her car onto the bridge from the Bronx side of the river and was hit by a Penn Station-bound Amtrak train. The passenger train carried the automobile for a distance of along the tracks. She survived with only minor injuries. *During the early morning hours of October 24, 2010, a fire broke out on the bridge, suspending train service until later that evening. *A boat ran into the bridge at around 4:20pm on May 29, 2016, causing major delays on the Empire Corridor, as the bridge was required to be inspected before trains could use it again. No injuries were reported in the incident.Zauderer, Alyssa (May 29, 2016
"Amtrak service on Empire Line suspended after boat strikes Spuyten Duyvil Bridge"
WPIX 11 News

Gallery

File:Henry Hudson Bridge.jpg, An aerial view showing the

(foreground) and the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge File:Spuyten Duyvil Bridge.jpg, Spuyten Duyvil Bridge from the Spuyten Duyvil Metro North station. File:Spuyten Duyvil Bridge north fixed span from gap jeh.jpg, The Bronx end of the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge when the swing is open

References

Notes

External links

History of the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge
{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place = Spuyten Duyvil Creek , bridge = Spuyten Duyvil Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream =

, upstream signs = , downstream =

, downstream signs = Toll plate yellow

1899 establishments in New York City Bridges completed in 1899 Bridges in Manhattan Bridges in the Bronx Bridges over the Harlem River Inwood, Manhattan New York Central Railroad bridges Railroad bridges in New York City Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx Steel bridges in the United States Swing bridges in the United States West Side Line