Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge

Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge
Arthur Kill Lift Bridge
Coordinates	40°38′15″N 74°11′44″W / 40.637518°N 74.195486°W / 40.637518; -74.195486
Carries	Conrail Shared Assets Operations
Crosses	Arthur Kill
Locale	Elizabeth, New Jersey and Staten Island, New York, United States
Owner	New York City Economic Development Corporation[1][2]
Characteristics
Design	Vertical-lift bridge
Height	215 feet (66 m)
Longest span	558 feet (170 m)[3]
Clearance below	135 feet (41 m) open 31 feet (9.4 m) closed[4]
Rail characteristics
No. of tracks	1
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Structure gauge	AAR
Electrified	None
History
Opened	August 25, 1959; reopened October 4, 2006
Location
References
[5]

The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge is a rail vertical-lift bridge connecting Elizabethport, New Jersey, and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, New York, United States. The bridge was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1959 to replace the Arthur Kill Bridge, a swing bridge opened in 1890.^[6] It contains a single track that is used mainly to carry garbage out of New York City, as well as to transport freight to destinations in western Staten Island. The bridge parallels the Goethals Bridge, which carries Interstate 278. It has the longest lift span of any vertical-lift bridge in the world,^[7] with two 215-foot (66 m) towers and a 558-foot (170 m) truss span that allows a 500-foot (152 m) channel. It clears mean high water by 31 feet (9.45 m) when closed and 135 feet (41 m) when lifted.^[8]