{"id":145,"date":"2013-07-01T02:43:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T02:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=145"},"modified":"2013-10-25T06:09:40","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T06:09:40","slug":"then-now-cheesequake-creek-railroad-bridge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/bridges-roads-rails\/bridges\/then-now-cheesequake-creek-railroad-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Then & Now – Cheesequake Creek Railroad Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NJ<\/a>

NJ Transit Cheesequake Creek Railroad Bridge in Morgan, NJ in 1975 then 2009. Its in Pretty Good Shape for Being 100 Years Old in 2013!<\/p><\/div>\n

Morgan Memories \u2013 Then & Now – Cheesequake Creek Railroad Bridge<\/h3>\n

The year 1913 was a busy one for bridge building in little ole Morgan, NJ.\u00a0 Of the two replacement bridges constructed that year, the County Road bridge and the New York and Long Branch Railroad bridge, the railroad bridge is one which survives to this day.\u00a0 Technically known as a Sherzer rolling lift draw bridge, it replaced the original 40ish year old 1870\u2019s era swing bridge.\u00a0 The railroad must have received a multi bridge discount since there appears to be a twin bridge on this same railroad further south in Point Pleasant and another similar looking one in Belmar.<\/span><\/p>\n

From what I have thus far found from the time period of the construction regarding the construction, it must have been a major undertaking to replace the railroad bridge.\u00a0 Consider the technology we have now with the technology from essentially 100 years ago.\u00a0 By the way, most of the information about the construction thus far was obtained from back issues of the South Amboy Citizen available via South Amboy\u2019s Sadie Pope Dowdell Library web site<\/a>; the articles are posted below.<\/p>\n

During the 1912\/1913 time frame, Cheesequake Creek was a very active water way.\u00a0 The US Army Corps of Engineers reported that commerce on the creek in 1912 was 44,130 tons with a value of $292,500.\u00a0 The commerce transported on the creek during this time period was for the clay related industries along the banks of the creek, i.e., sand, brick and clay, and the inland farms, i.e., produce and fertilizer (manure!).<\/p>\n

The November 9, 1912 South Amboy Citizen article indicates a temporary rail bridge was to be built while the old swing bridge was removed and the new bridge put in its place.\u00a0 While I have yet to find information regarding the exact date the new bridge was completed (yes, I examined every issue from 1912 & 1913), the April 12, 1913 issue discusses an incident which occurred after the bridge was in use. That would, of course, mean the new bridge opened some time before April 12!\u00a0 My theory is that the bridge swap happened during the winter months in order to have minimal impact on Cheesequake Creek navigation.\u00a0 Boats traversing Cheesequake Creek transporting these cargos needed to get past the railroad bridge site in order to get to and from Raritan Bay.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine that the temporary bridge would have been more than a single track which connected the two sides of the creek. \u00a0I also can\u2019t imagine that it would have had the capacity to open.\u00a0 If you had to stop all creek navigation, which probably was required during the construction, it would have been better to do it in the winter when little agricultural activity would have been going on.\u00a0 Remember that the area at the headwaters of Cheesequake Creek at that time was predominantly farms.<\/p>\n

In the to-be-added page<\/span> showing a 1913 blueprint survey of the Robert E. Lee Morgan property on the north banks of Cheesequake Creek, you\u2019ll see the original swing bridge and the \u201cNew Trestle\u201d. As discussed above, the current bridge was placed in the approximate location as the original swing bridge.<\/p>\n

In 1918, the then five year old bridge survived the great Gillespie Loading Company explosions of October which occurred only a mile and a half away (see to-be-added pages<\/span>).<\/p>\n

NJ Transit electrified the line from South Amboy to Matawan in the early 1980s necessitating them to take on the challenge of adapting a then 70 year old bridge to support overhead centenary wires without impeding its ability to open and close \u2013 and to be able to do it for decades.\u00a0 That surely must have been a very interesting homework assignment for some engineers.\u00a0 You can see the before and after in the photos on this posting.\u00a0 The first photo was taken on the same day circa 1975 as the one showing the house on the Old Spye Road posting from the to-be-added<\/span> Old Spye Road page.\u00a0 That would have been how the bridge essentially looked since it was constructed in 1912\/1913.\u00a0 The second photo is from the summer of 2009 taken from nearly the same location (didn\u2019t seem to totally match the first one \u2013 maybe next time).<\/p>\n

As with all structures, there has been occasional maintenance to the bridge.\u00a0 I have found information about two maintenance projects from the 21st<\/sup> Century but surely there must have a number of them during the 20th<\/sup> Century.\u00a0 One of the projects occurred around 2003 and consisted of underwater repairs to the piers and abutments supporting the drawbridge.\u00a0 Sometime after April 2006 and by the end of Summer 2007, the bridge was to receive a number of repairs by the Kiska Construction, Inc. of Long Island City, NY.\u00a0 Specifically Kiska was to rehabilitate the mechanism for opening and closing the bridge, as well as other structural and mechanical improvements.\u00a0 Some information about this is contained on page 6 of this brochure from UrbanTech<\/a>, a Consulting Engineering company which performed some engineering services for Kiska.<\/p>\n

In the to-be-added pages, we\u2019ll cover some of the damages caused by Hurricane Sandy.\u00a0 To their credit, NJ Transit did a very fast repair in order to get the trains moving through Morgan as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

The railroad bridge over Cheesequake Creek continues to serve NJ Transit daily commuters making their way north for work or passengers going south for fun.\u00a0 It still opens to let boats pass through and, as far as I know, is still operated by someone sitting in the attached cabin though I have heard that recently NJ Transit has added an automated capability.<\/p>\n

South Amboy Citizen Articles:<\/h3>\n

November 2, 1912 – ODDS AND ENDS<\/a><\/p>\n

Harry L. Thomas, of this city, has been appointed civil engineer of the New York and Long Branch Railroad, and has been placed in full charge of the construction work of<\/em><\/p>\n

the new bridge to be built at Morgan. Mr. Thomas resigned his position with the engineering department of New York City to accept the new office.<\/em><\/p>\n

November 9, 1912 – NEW RAILROAD BRIDGE AT MORGAN<\/a><\/p>\n

Large quantities of timber and other material are being unloaded at Morgan for the New York and Long Branch Railroad, preparatory to erecting a temporary bridge over Cheesequake Creek. When this is completed the present bridge will be torn down, and a new and much larger one erected in its stead. It will be several feet higher above sea level than the old one, and will be wide enough to carry four tracks. It will have a lift bridge, operated by power.<\/em><\/p>\n

This issue also announced that Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey was elected President of the United States<\/p>\n

January 18, 1913 – THREE FINGERS CUT OFF<\/a><\/p>\n

Olaf Hanson, who is employed as a workman on the construction of the N. Y. and L. B. drawbridge at Morgan, had three fingers so badly mutilated by the pile driver on Monday, that his fellow workmen had to clip them off with a pair of scissors. Hanson endeavored to pull himself off the ground by placing his hand on a sheet piling, not noticing that the weight of 4,200 pounds was descending.\u00a0 The accident caused great pain and he was taken immediately to the Perth Amboy City Hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n

April 12, 1913 – LIFTED DRAW LET DOWN ON PASSING VESSEL<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening about 7.30 o’clock, the N. Y. & L. B. R. R. drawbridge at Morgan Station was lowered, on the oyster sloop “Georgianna,” nearly sinking the boat.\u00a0 Walter Ryerson, who was in charge of the bridge, evidently misunderstood a signal given by the bridgeman, who signaled him to raise the bridge higher.\u00a0 He pulled the wrong lever and the bridge descended on the boat, nearly sinking it. A youth was standing on the sloop, and when Amos Stratton yelled to him, he managed to draw himself on the bridge in a manner to escape injury.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally posted on January 22, 2011.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morgan Memories \u2013 Then & Now – Cheesequake Creek Railroad Bridge The year 1913 was a busy one for bridge building in little ole Morgan, NJ.\u00a0 Of the two replacement bridges constructed that year, the County Road bridge and the New York and Long Branch Railroad bridge, the railroad bridge is one which survives to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":973,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-145","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions\/149"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}