Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge

The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge is a special kind of bridge used for trains. It connects two places: Elizabethport, New Jersey and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, New York, in the United States. This bridge was built in 1959 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to replace an older bridge that opened way back in 1890.

This bridge has just one train track, and it is mostly used to carry garbage out of New York City. It also helps move goods to places on the western part of Staten Island. The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge runs close to another bridge called the Goethals Bridge, which is used for cars on Interstate 278.

One amazing thing about this bridge is that it can lift itself up! It has very tall towers and a long stretch that can rise to let boats pass through safely underneath. When it lifts up, it can reach very high to make sure tall ships can move through the waterway below.

First period of use

The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge opened in 1959, replacing an older bridge. After it opened, there was less need for trains because factories on Staten Island closed down. Companies like Bethlehem Steel, U.S. Gypsum, U.S. Lines, and Procter and Gamble stopped operating. More goods started moving by truck instead of train, which also reduced train traffic. The last freight train crossed the bridge in 1990, and train service on that line stopped until 2007.

The bridge was owned by several companies over time, including B&O Railroad, CSX, and the Delaware Otsego Corporation. They no longer needed the bridge for regular use.

Second period of use

In 1994, the New York City Economic Development Corporation bought the Arthur Kill Railroad Lift Bridge. In 2004, they announced plans to fix the bridge and bring back train service on Staten Island. The work included painting the bridge royal blue and fixing its lifting parts. This project finished in 2006.

In October 2006, a train crossed the bridge for the first time in 16 years. It was a single locomotive working at the New York Container Terminal, also called Howland Hook.

In April 2007, regular garbage removal from the Staten Island Transfer Station began, which helped reduce truck traffic near the Goethals Bridge. In October 2007, the New York Container Terminal started a rail service called ExpressRail with trains running regularly. In 2013, a company named Reworld started moving garbage from Queens and Manhattan to the terminal by barge, then to trains for transport to waste to energy plants.

The bridge is usually raised to let ships pass through the Arthur Kill ship channel. Since 2018, rules limit when the bridge can be lowered to just two short periods each day, with notice and some restrictions during high tide. The train service on Staten Island currently uses only one train a day, so these limits are not a problem yet, but they might be if more trains start using the bridge.^{: p. 15}

Image gallery

View of the track.