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13-727: The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge is a rail vertical-lift bridge connecting Elizabethport, New Jersey , and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island , New York, United States. The bridge was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1959 to replace the Arthur Kill Bridge , a swing bridge opened in 1890. It contains a single track that is used mainly to carry garbage out of New York City , as well as to transport freight to destinations in western Staten Island. The bridge parallels

26-437: A problem if traffic increases significantly Vertical-lift bridge The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swing-span bridges . Generally speaking, they cost less to build for longer moveable spans. The counterweights in a vertical lift are only required to be equal to the weight of the deck, whereas bascule bridge counterweights must weigh several times as much as

39-467: Is a ship channel. The bridge is normally kept in the raised position (open to shipping), lowering to allow the passage of trains. As of 2018, U.S. Coast Guard regulations limit lowering the bridge to two 15-minute periods per day, with advance warning and restrictions on lowering during high tide. Conrail, which services Staten Island with one train a day, has stated that they do not see this limitation affecting current rail traffic levels, but it could become

52-468: The Goethals Bridge , which carries Interstate 278 . It has the longest lift span of any vertical-lift bridge in the world, with two 215-foot (66 m) towers and a 558-foot (170 m) truss span that allows a 500-foot (152 m) channel. It clears mean high water by 31 feet (9.45 m) when closed and 135 feet (41 m) when lifted. After the bridge opened in 1959 upon having replaced

65-579: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a $ 72 million project to rehabilitate the bridge and reactivate freight rail service on Staten Island . Repairs included repainting the steel and rehabilitating the lift mechanism. The bridge was painted royal blue in an homage to the B&;O. The rehabilitation project was completed in June 2006. On October 4, 2006, a train crossed the bridge for

78-411: The counterweights to the span may be located above or below the bridge deck. The fixed- trunnion (sometimes a "Chicago" bascule) rotates around a large axle that raises the span(s). The Chicago bascule name derives from the location where it is widely used, and is a refinement by Joseph Strauss of the fixed-trunnion. The rolling lift trunnion (sometimes a "Scherzer" rolling lift), raises

91-551: The Arthur Kill Bridge, rail traffic declined due to loss of manufacturing facilities on Staten Island. Bethlehem Steel closed in 1960, U.S. Gypsum in 1972, U.S. Lines- Howland Hook Marine Terminal in 1986, and Procter and Gamble in 1991. A shift to truck traffic also reduced rail traffic over the bridge, and the North Shore branch of rail service went through a series of owners. The three companies that owned

104-583: The French term for balance scale , which employs the same principle. Bascule bridges are the most common type of movable span because they open quickly and require relatively little energy to operate, while providing the possibility for unlimited vertical clearance for marine traffic. Bascule bridges have been in use since ancient times, but until the adoption of steam power in the 1850s, very long, heavy spans could not be moved quickly enough for practical application. There are three types of bascule bridge and

117-860: The North Branch were B&O Railroad , CSX , and the Delaware Otsego Corporation . They saw the bridge as excess property. The last freight train went over the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge in 1990, and North Shore branch service ceased to operate until 2007. In 1994, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) purchased the Arthur Kill Railroad Lift Bridge and the North Shore branch from CSX . In December 2004, NYCEDC and

130-637: The first time in 16 years. It was a single locomotive which took on switching duties at the New York Container Terminal , also known by its old name, Howland Hook. On April 2, 2007, normal operations involving garbage removal from the Staten Island Transfer Station started, which would result in an estimated 90,000 annual truck loads diverted from the nearby Goethals Bridge . On October 4, 2007, New York Container Terminal, which operates Howland Hook, announced

143-598: The opening of on-dock rail service called ExpressRail via the bridge, with regular service by Conrail (CRCX), CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads. In 2013, Reworld signed a contract with the New York City Sanitation Department to barge containers of solid waste from transfer stations in Queens and Manhattan to New York Container Terminal where they will be transferred to rail cars for shipment to Covanta waste to energy plants. Arthur Kill

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156-458: The span being lifted. As a result, heavier materials can be used in the deck, and so this type of bridge is especially suited for heavy railroad use. The biggest disadvantage to the vertical-lift bridge (in comparison with many other designs) is the height restriction for vessels passing under it, due to the deck remaining suspended above the passageway. Most vertical-lift bridges use towers, each equipped with counterweights. An example of this kind

169-585: Was built in Portland, Oregon, United States in 1912. Another design uses balance beams to lift the deck, with pivoting bascules located on the top of the lift towers. See List of vertical-lift bridges . 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 double-leafed. The name comes from

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