{"id":136,"date":"2013-06-30T07:25:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T07:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=136"},"modified":"2013-10-25T06:08:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T06:08:06","slug":"morgan-bridge-is-going-down","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/bridges-roads-rails\/bridges\/morgan-bridge-is-going-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Bridge is Going Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Morgan<\/a>Anyone traveling on Route 35 through Morgan in the summer months has likely encountered something somewhat out of the ordinary when trying to cross over the Morgan Bridge \u2013 standstill traffic.\u00a0 This is no ordinary traffic jam but rather a long Morgan tradition \u2013 trying to cross Cheesequake Creek.\u00a0 Reportedly, in stage coach days, people would wait at the Old Spye Inn for the tide to go out until the creek was low enough to cross it.\u00a0 In the 1920\u2019s, prior to the building of Route 35 and the current Morgan Bridge, enormous traffic jams occurred at the grade level crossing where Old Spye Road crossed the New York and Long Branch Railroad.\u00a0 Imagine 25,000 cars trying to cross railroad tracks when on the same day significantly more than the current 74 trains per day were bringing Memorial Day city folk to the Jersey Shore.\u00a0 With this perspective, waiting a little bit for the bridge to close these days should be considered as a welcome break and a chance to step out and stretch your legs.<\/p>\n

Of course if you were in a big hurry to begin with, you would have taken the Garden State Parkway which crosses Cheesequake Creek one mile further inland where no draw bridge is necessary.<\/p>\n

The current Morgan Bridge is at least the third, and probably the fourth, road bridge to span Cheesequake Creek at this location (see the to-be-included \u201cThe Bridges of Cheesequake Creek\u201d page).\u00a0 What remains of the predecessor bridge is a closed off concrete road running parallel on the bay side just to the east on the south side of the creek.\u00a0 If any of the readers has more information – especially photographs – of any previous bridges at this site, please leave your contact info in the \u201cComments\u201d section below.<\/p>\n

The movable portion of Morgan Bridge is like a huge seesaw.\u00a0 On one side of its horizontal axis is the road bed which tilts up to let sailboats pass through. On the other side of the horizontal axis is a counter weight which tilts down when the bridge opens.\u00a0 This counterweight balances the weight of the road bed and allows for a smaller motor to be used to open and close the bridge.\u00a0 This type of bridge is technically known as a Bascule bridge.\u00a0 \u201cBascule\u201d is a French word meaning \u201cSeesaw\u201d.\u00a0 When the roadbed on the southeast side tilts up, the counterweight on the northwest side tilts down.<\/p>\n

The following is additional information regarding this bridge which is one of the icons of Morgan still physically in existence:<\/p>\n