The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is a swing bridge that carries Amtrak's Empire Corridor line across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx, in New York City. The bridge is located at the northern tip of Manhattan where the Spuyten Duyvil Creek meets the Hudson River, approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) to the west of the Henry Hudson Bridge. It was built to carry two tracks, but now carries only a single track on the east side of the bridge.
A wooden railroad bridge across the Spuyten Duyvil was first constructed by the New York & Hudson River Railroad in 1849. The current steel bridge was designed by Robert Giles and constructed in 1900; the piers rest on pile foundations in the riverbed. Trains stopped running across the bridge in 1982 and the following year the bridge was damaged by a vessel and left stuck in the open position.
The bridge was rehabilitated in the late 1980s and Amtrak's Empire Service began using the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge on April 7, 1991 following the completion of the Empire Connection. This involved the conversion of the abandoned West Side Line to accommodate passenger service and connect with Pennsylvania Station. Up until then, Amtrak trains traveling between New York and Albany had utilized Grand Central Terminal.
The bridge is used by approximately 30 trains per day and is opened over 1,000 times per year, primarily during the summer months for Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and recreational vessels.
Read more about Spuyten Duyvil Bridge: Incidents
Famous quotes containing the word bridge:
“I was at work that morning. Someone came riding like mad
Over the bridge and up the road—Farmer Rouf’s little lad.
Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say,
“Morgan’s men are coming, Frau, they’re galloping on this way.”
—Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894)