PHOTOS: SUSQUEHANNA BRIDGE (1644001) | |
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PHOTOS: SUSQUEHANNA BRIDGE |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Sep 25 20:30:36 2025 With all the infrastructure money now sloshing about, many landmark structures up and down and NEC are in danger of replacement and this includes the PRR Susquehanna River Bridge between Havre De Grace and Perryville, MD. When I caught wind that piers from an earlier 19th century span were marked for demolition as part of the project, I got my butt down there to get whatever photographs that I could ( mirror ). Also included are some photos of some trips to DC on MARC and WMATA.The current bridge was built in 1906, replacing an earlier wooden truss span, later upgraded to iron, that opened in 1866. The 19th century bridge was converted to a road bridge before being closed in 1940 when the current US 40 double through truss bridge replaced it. The granite for the 1866 piers were quarried in nearby Port Deposit. ![]() ![]() The north end of the bridge is part of PERRY interlocking that represents the junction with the former Conrail Port Road Branch that continues to provide freight access to the lower NEC. Here a southbound Acela trainset with power cars #2035 and #2039 pass under PERRY's northbound signal bridge. ![]() ![]() Here a northbound Amtrak Regional train with ACS-86 #635 passes through the Susquehanna Bridge's swing span. Port Deposit was home to a shipyard which closed in the 1980's making bridge openings much less frequent. Today the swing span is non-interlocked and requires a track crew to unbolt the rails to enable movement. ![]() ![]() Since the closure of the Perryville Veterans Administration complex, the road under the northernmost span has been closed, but pedestrians can get an up close view of the Eye-bar based truss syste, ![]() ![]() The demolition barge was working the south side of the river. The new span will actually be to the north of the present one, so the reason given for the demolition of the historic piers was "environmental remediation". There were 11 19th century piers in total and I am sure their removal helped create "jobs". ![]() ![]() Here we see ACS-86 #611 crossing the bridge with a southbound Regional. ![]() Another view of the central swing span. It's height makes openings very infrequent. ![]() Here, northbound Amtrak Regional Train #146 crosses the 1902 replacement span over the Susquehanna River, taking the Clear 2N signal at PERRY interlocking. This was followed by northbound Amtrak Silver Star Train #92 hauled by Veterans ACS-86 #642. Trains crossing the bridge make an enchanting rumble that a modern replacement will be unlikely to replicate. I was unfortunately caught in a bad position to get good video of a double headed southbound Amtrak Silver Meteor Train 97 as it crossed the bridge with ACS-86 #614 and #617, meeting northbound Carolinian Train 80 in the process. The south end of the bridge was located directly adjacent to GRACE interlocking where the 2-track bridge expanded back to 4 tracks. Amtrak moved GRACE about half a mile to the south due to the risk of Chase, MD style accidents taking place on the bridge span. ![]() It will be interesting to see if the chief engineers get their name on the new bridge, or just the politicians who arranged the funding. ![]() That's all for the Susquehanna River Bridge, but I also have some additional DC transit photos from a work trip. On Day 1 I parked at Greenbelt catching 6k car #6042 in to the city and returning on 7k car #7706. ![]() The next day I took MARC, but didn't manage any inbound photos. Returning my train had cab car #7856 and MP36PH-3C locomotive #15. ![]() ![]() On the adjacent track #9 was single level cab car #7761 and MP36PH-3C's #25 and #27. ![]() ![]() ![]() On the last day it was back to the DC Metro with #7350 inbound from Greenbelt and #7272 back. ![]() ![]() I hope you liked the photos. Next week I'll be taking advantage of NJT's free transit promotion as I head to get photos in Metutchen, NJ. |
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(1644008) | |
Re: PHOTOS: SUSQUEHANNA BRIDGE |
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Posted by Mr RT on Fri Sep 26 10:43:57 2025, in response to PHOTOS: SUSQUEHANNA BRIDGE, posted by Jersey Mike on Thu Sep 25 20:30:36 2025. My son lives in Perryville & has a boat so I've been under that bridge many times |
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(1644013) | |
Re: PHOTOS: SUSQUEHANNA BRIDGE |
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Posted by Olog-hai on Fri Sep 26 13:19:32 2025, in response to Re: PHOTOS: SUSQUEHANNA BRIDGE, posted by Mr RT on Fri Sep 26 10:43:57 2025. I sometimes wonder what it would cost these days to tunnel under the Susquehanna instead of using a bridge; probably five times what it would have cost at the turn of the century. |
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