Might be more than you ever wanted to know, but I found it pretty interesting:
“Transfer Bridges of New York Harbor - Past, Present, and Future”
Giancarlo Schiano P.E., Kevin Ciampi P.E., and James Lester - HDR Engineering Inc.
HEAVY MOVABLE STRUCTURES, INC. FIFTEENTH BIENNIAL SYMPOSIUM
September 15-18, 2014
Abstract
"New York Harbor is one of the largest natural harbors in the world and the Port of New York and New Jersey currently is the busiest port on the east coast of the United States handling freight in excess of $200 billion annually. The transferring of goods in the region is aided by a well-developed system of marine, rail, and air cargo within the Port. One of the most intriguing, yet largely unknown, forms of goods transfer across the harbor was developed in the 1860’s and thrived until the 1950’s. In the late 1800’s railroads began loading railcars onto barges fitted with track via moving bridges. These barges became known as carfloats and the moving bridges became know as transfer bridges. The carfloats were transported across the harbor with an army of tugboats operated by the railroads. The waterfront of New York and New Jersey during this period was congested with at least 80 transfer bridges, hundreds of piers and hundreds of car floats joining passenger ferries and cargo ships in a cluttered intricate dance across the harbor. At its peak, freight traffic across the harbor was controlled by dozens of railroads however has declined to a single active transfer bridge operation in the harbor today.
This paper will explore the rise and decline of car floating in New York Harbor from the 1880’s to the present day and touch on the various aspects of the different types of rail transfer bridges utilized to load and unload car floats."
They forgot the H&M (PATH) and juxtaposed Jersey City and Brooklyn unconventionally.
“Aside from the PRR Hudson River tunnels and passenger ferry service in the harbor, there was no direct access to Manhattan from New Jersey until 1927 for commuters.”
“On the east side of the harbor all interchange carfloating would be consolidated to PRR facility at Greenville Yard in Jersey City. On the west side the majority of carfloating would be consolidated to the LIRR facility in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.”
Paul, my dad bought a wood carfloat from the Erie Lackawanna Railroad back in the 1950’s and had it towed to a waterfront property he owned in Connecticut. The carfloat was about 300 feet long and 35 feet wide, the tug pushed it under a NYNH&H railroad bridge which was 36 feet wide…very interesting! The carfloat had a center raised deck for unloading/loading rail cars and had only recently been overhauled: all massive southern long leaf pine timbers and in really A+ condition. The rails were sold to the town for marine railways at several places and we canablized most of the center deck for rebuilding other docks. Amazing how cheap she was sold for and hard to believe that most of that system is completly gone. Thanks for the link.
Sounds like what your dad bought was a “station float” - see pgs. 4 and 5 of 53 of the article. I’d never seen nor heard of the name or the concept/ function until I read this article.
This paper, with corrections and some rewriting and condensation, but a terrific basis for an article in either Trains or Classic Trains. I hope someone goes ahead and does it.
People have been prodding Philip Goldstein, webmaster of the very interesting “Industrial, Offline Terminal & Rail-Marine Operations” website to do just that (and/or a book). Quite a number of images from his website appear in this transfer bridge paper (they are credited to him).
That website is where I actually learned the once magnitude of car-floating in NY Harbor. I got serious into semi-railfanning only by the late 1980s, when practically everything was abandoned/gone/redeveloped. I have read the then newly published “Brooklyn’s Waterfront Railways: A Pictorial Journey”, but while it covered some interesting items, it didn’t really span the scale of the past float operations (actually, I think they had only one or two so-so maps). By the late 1980s I think you basically had the Bush Terminal operation, which even then wasn’t so hot looking (and Manhattan no longer had hundreds of industries along the lower west side which required lots of raw material or shipped goods outbound - hence why the NYC Highline was abandoned around 1980 or so.
Important, the remaining cross harbor operation serves two Brooklyn terminals, one is Bush Terminal around 50th Street, and the other is New York and Atlantic at Bay Ridge, about 65rd St. The latter is owned by the LIRR, but New York and Atantic is the frieght railroad operator for the LIRR. This was also the south end of the New Haven freight electrifiation, with New Haven power and crews running through. But the switching was done by LIRR power and crews with the only 11000V AC power owned by the LIRR, 0-6-0 box-cab switihcers, (B1?), identqacle to those owned by PRR and used at Sunnyside and various stations.
Bush Terminal had freight traicks or use streetcar tracks south to BayRidge at one time. May still be there. Street tracks still serve some shippers. Both Bush Terminal and the Bay Ridgd yard had connections to the subway system. I know Bush Terminal still does, but am unsure about Bay Ridge. Lots of new subway cars were car-floated, R-10’w, 12’s, 14’s, 15’s, qnd 16’s via Bay Ridge, the LIRR, and Ave H connection, Macdonald Avenue streetcar tracks. R-46’s via Bush Terminal and the connection to the cut at 9th Avenue station.
To be clear, AFAIK there are no float operations out of Bush 50th St. Yard any longer.
Bush Terminal float bridge #1 was in bad shape and half sunk, so Bush float bridge #2 was used for floating. Then the Greenville Transfer bridges were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, so the PA/NYNJ moved float bridge #2 over to Greenville to restore float operations. I believe that leaves 65th Street as the sole remaining Brooklyn transfer float location, as (since I have not read anything to the contrary) the float bridge #1 at Bush 50th St. yard remains out of service. I know we had a thread a few years back asking what was happening at Bush Terminal, and the answer then was “Not much”.
The (reconfigured) 1st Avenue street trackage is used to run from 65th to the Marine Terminal (and the SBK), how often it is used is a different story, but I understand Sims recycling (loads gondolas) is busy.
Is Sims now served by Bush terminal or by New York and Atlantic, or directly by the Port Authoriiy’s replacement for Cross Harbor?
If and when Bush Terminal handles any frieght, does it have to interchange with New York and Atlantic to receive or send via carfloat, or does it deal with the Port Authority’s replacement directly?
The Bay Ridge carfloat operation seems to remain pretty vital to LI’s economy desp;ite CSX, and Providence and Worcester, and possibly CP interchanging with NY&A at Fresh Pond Jc. via the Hell Gate Bridge.
Bush Terminal? Unless you mean the corporation which leases those industrial buildings on 2nd ave (actually, it’s apparently called Industry City now), I don’t think they’ve been around for awhile.
Those tracks were owned by Bush Terminal, which was a port, railroad, and warehouse organizaiton all-in-one, and possibly before that by the BMT or its South Brooklyn subsidiary. I suppose whatever maintenance that track gets is now by NY&NJ, and you have answered the question, since NY&NJ is the successor to Cross-Harbor, New York and Atlantic is not involved, and I guess the new Bush Terminal is not in the railroad business. If freight does go to the Maarine Terminal or to the subway connection at 39th Street (if it still exists), I would guess NY&NJ power and crews would do the work.
And for Long Island freight, I suppose NY&NJ power and crews load and unload the floats (barges), and make up trains and cuts for the floats, while road crews are NY&Atlantic to operate over the LIRR Bay Ridge branch to Fresh Pond Junction, where trains are made up and received for and from specific customers’ lines.
The scrapmetal business would not be enough by itself to support the carfloat operation, but it probably helps the bottom lines when added to the various Long Island customers, and this certainly keeps trucks off the road. And the power and tracks seem in good shape, better than what I remember in the trolley days 65years ago.
Jersey City, New Jersey and New York, New York, Urban (Small Project)
Proposed Grant Amount: $10,672,590
Project Justification
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will be awarded $10,672,590 of a $17,787,650 project for intermodal rail improvements to help optimize the Port Authority’s railcar float system and thus reduce significant existing highway truck traffic in the area. The project includes two components. First, as part of the 65th Street Yard Improvements, the project will extend the existing transloading dock, (increasing its capacity from 3 to 12 railcars), cover the transloading dock with a canopy to protect sensitive cargo from the elements, pave certain areas in the Yard for easier transloading, and install other improvements, including a truck weigh station. Second, as part of the Port Jersey Division Second Track improvements, the project will double-track a portion of the Port Jersey Division of New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (“NYNJR”), currently a single-track freight line (known as the Port Jersey Lead Track) serving a series of local warehouses and distribution centers adjacent to Greenville Yard, build a second track along NYNJR’s Port Jersey Division, and shift the interchange of railcars for that line between Conrail and NYNJR out of Greenville Yard and onto the new second track. The application included a Tier II Environmental Review and Preliminary Engineering component consisting of an environmental assessment for Enhanced Carfloat Service and an environmental impact statement for a Rail Tunnel Al
I wondered if there was any interchange between NS and P&W via the cross harbor car float, as in PRR/NH days. However, a recent article in Trains on the P&W only indicated the Worcester area interchange thru Pan Am with NS.
Providence & Worcester freight via the Hell Gate Bridge is interchanged with New York and Atlantic only for Brooklyn, Queens, and other Long Island shippers and receivers. None of the those cars goes across te Harbor at the present time.
It was Penn Central that essentially downgraded and then scrapped both crossing the harbor and the Maybrook Poughkeepsie Bridge routes as through routes and made the Selkirk route the only route to New Engnland other than B&M Mechanicsville (Guildord-Pan-Am Patriot Corredor with NS) or via Canada. But if you visit the New York and New Jersey Railroad website, you can see a pretty ambitious plan to increase business, and this might involve through service again. But New York and New Jersey at present does not interchange directly with CSX in Brooklyn nor P&W nor CP. New York and Atlantic is the carrier betwen Bay Ridge and Fresh Pond Junction. CSX and P&W run to and from there regularly, CP on occasion, otherwise handled by CSX.
In your last post there are a number of “image not available” notices. This is a tragedy because you know where to find so many interesting ones. I hope this is a minor technical issue you can clear up.
