Feats of Engineering: Bridging the Hackensack River and Cutting through Bergen Hill Documentation for Three Historic Resources that Help Move Commerce and Commuters throughout the Port of New York and New Jersey By Teresa D. Bulger Prepared for: The New Jersey Department of Transportation May 7, 2019 CULTURAL RESOURCE CONSULTANTS DBE/WBE CERTIFIED Feats of Engineering: Bridging the Hackensack River and Cutting through Bergen Hill Documentation for Three Historic Resources that Help Move Commerce and Commuters throughout the Port of New York and New Jersey The Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch (Conrail/CSX) Bridge over the Hackensack River, the New Jersey Railroad Bergen Cut Historic District, and the Hackensack River Lift Bridges Historic District Author: Teresa D. Bulger, Ph.D. Prepared by: RGA, Inc. 259 Prospect Plains Road, Building D Cranbury, New Jersey 08512 Prepared for: The New Jersey Department of Transportation Date: May 7, 2019 Cover photograph: Jack Boucher, HAER Documentation for the Erie & Lackawanna Railroad Bridge, 1979. TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents .....................................................................................................................................i 1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................................1 2.0 Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch (Conrail/CSX) Bridge over the Hackensack River ..............................................................................................................................................2 3.0 New Jersey Railroad Bergen Cut Historic District ����������������������������������������������������������������8 4.0 Hackensack River Lift Bridges Historic District ..................................................................16 5.0 Bibliography...............................................................................................................................25 Attachments ............................................................................................................................................31 i 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Additional Research document has been prepared by RGA, Inc. (RGA) on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. The publication is an outgrowth of NJDOT’s plans to replace the Wittpenn Bridge with a new, vertical lift structure. In 2010, the NJDOT executed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to mitigate the effects of replacing the Wittpenn Bridge. Stipulation #4 of the MOA, Additional Research, called for the NJDOT to ensure that additional research be carried out regarding three historic properties including the Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch (Conrail/CSX) Bridge over the Hackensack, the New Jersey Railroad Bergen Cut Historic District, and the Hackensack River Lift Bridges Historic District. These properties are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and represent three of the four eligible historic properties that were adversely affected by the replacement of the Wittpenn Bridge, the fourth property being the Wittpenn Bridge. Additional components of the project include measures such as the preparation of Historic American Engineering Record documentation of the Wittpenn Bridge and interpretive displays. All documentation will be placed on file with the NJDOT and the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJHPO) in Trenton. The purpose of this document is to serve as a reference tool and does not formally revise any 1.0 INTRODUCTION prior opinion of the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) or other regulatory finding. Abbreviations: Abbreviation Full Name C&ARR Camden and Amboy Railroad DL&WRR Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad D&RCC Delaware and Raritan Canal Company M&E Morris and Essex Railroad NJRR New Jersey Railroad P&HRR Paterson and Hudson River Railroad PATH Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation PRR Pennsylvania Railroad UNJRR&C Co. United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Co. Short Name Full Name Lower Hack Bridge Lower Hack Draw Bridge over the Hackensack River Harsimus Branch Bridge Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch (Conrail/CSX) Bridge over the Hackensack River PATH Bridge Pennsylvania Railroad (PATH) Bridge over the Hackensack River Wittpenn Bridge Wittpenn (NJ Route 7) Bridge over the Hackensack River Bergen Cut Historic District New Jersey Railroad Bergen Cut Historic District 1 2.0 PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD HARSIMUS BRANCH (CONRAIL/CSX) BRIDGE OVER THE HACKENSACK RIVER UTM coordinates: 18T 577486 4510376 UTM Location and Setting Spanning the Hackensack River, City of Jersey City and Kearny Town, Hudson County, New BRIDGE Jersey (Figure 1). The bridge’s surroundings are characterized by low density, light industrial properties and an extensive road network. Nearby roads include the Pulaski Skyway (U.S. Route 1 & 9) to the south, and the U.S. Route 1 & 9 Truck route and NJ Route 7 on the east side of the river. NJ Route 7 crosses the Hackensack River over the Wittpenn Bridge, just north of and sharing its western piers with the subject bridge. Current Owner Private: Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX Corporation via Conrail. Current Function Transportation - Rail-Related Description The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Harsimus Branch (Conrail/CSX) Bridge over the Hackensack River (Harsimus Branch Bridge) is one of a series of vertical lift bridges constructed in New Jersey during the early twentieth century as part of a “post WWI regional effort, led by the War Department to provide a steady and uninterrupted flow of railroad, vehicular, and marine traffic through and over the navigable waterways within the Port of New York” (Guzzo 2002). This structure carries two tracks of freight rail traffic over the Hackensack River, between Kearny Town and Jersey City, and once connected northern New Jersey with the former PRR’s Harsimus Cove terminal on the east side of Jersey City via the Bergen Cut (Figure 2).1 Completed in 1930, the structure’s vertical lift design was intended to enable large vessels associated with marine commerce along the Hackensack River to utilize a wider navigation channel and greater clearances than was made available by the earlier swing-bridge design it replaced. The latter had been constructed between 1880 and 1887 by the PRR early in its campaign to improve freight movements into Jersey City. The lift bridge was designed in consultation with the firm of Waddell and Hardesty, renowned movable bridge engineers, and was constructed in coordination with the PRR’s adjacent sister bridge, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PATH) Bridge over the Hackensack (PATH Bridge), which carried passenger trains to Jersey City, and the Wittpenn (NJ Route 7) Bridge over the Hackensack (Wittpenn Bridge). Today the Harsimus Branch Bridge continues to carry freight traffic and is owned by Conrail Shared Assets Corporation which is controlled jointly by Norfolk Southern Corporation and CSX. This bridge represents a good example of movable bridge technology developed by American engineers in the early twentieth century (Hawley 1984 [HAER NJ-43]; Guzzo 2002). The Harsimus Branch Bridge comprises the following spans: one through girder and four deck plate steel girder western approach spans, two Pratt truss tower spans, a Parker truss lift span, one deck plate steel girder, and a six span concrete-encased steel viaduct at the eastern approach. The bridge measures 1,188 feet long and rests on reinforced concrete piers. The lift span is 198 feet, 10 inches long with a 13-foot vertical clearance over mean high water in the closed position and a 135-foot clearance when opened. The relatively low 13-foot HARSIMUS BRANCH RAILROAD 2.0 PENNSYLVANIA vertical clearance was determined by the elevation of PRR’s Meadow Yards (now part of the Kearny Intermodal Facility) located immediately to the west of the structure. As a result of 1 This document’s description of the Harsimus Branch Bridge is drawn from the 2001 Cultural Resources Survey for the Wittpenn Bridge (Richard Grubb & Associates, Inc. 2002). 2 the low vertical clearance, the bridge opened more than 1,000 times a year in 2000, while the adjacent Wittpenn Bridge, seated at 35 feet above mean high water, only opened approximately 300 times in the same year (Parsons Transportation Group, Inc. 2000). The towers consist of front vertical columns and rear inclined columns. Mounted atop the towers are sheaves over which pass steel wire ropes that are attached to counterweights and are used to lift the span. Gears move the span upward while simultaneously allowing the counterweights to move downward. Since its opening, the lift span has been controlled by a bridge operator stationed in the adjoining PRR PATH Bridge to the south. History The PRR traces its roots to 1846 when it began acquiring or leasing other lines throughout Pennsylvania. By the end of the Civil War, the PRR had extended its reach as far as St. Louis, Chicago, Washington, and Buffalo. Still, the PRR lacked a direct route to New York. In 1871, the PRR acquired a 999-year lease of the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (UNJRR&C Co.), a consolidation of the New Jersey Railroad Company (NJRR), the Camden and Amboy Railroad (C&ARR) and Delaware & Raritan Canal Company (D&RCC), which together operated a rail line between Trenton and Jersey City. Renamed the Main Line of the New York Division, the newly leased trackage allowed the PRR to compete directly with the Erie Railroad