NS/NYC Iron Curtain Bridge over Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite)

I noticed that Cleveland has quite a few lift bridges for roads as well as railroads. After Chicago built the Halsted Street Bridge, they decided lift bridges would be too ugly for use in the downtown area so the invented their Chicago Style trunnion bascule design.

Photo by C Hanchey, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), Flickr

Bridge Hunter has a build date of 1947. But Historic Bridges explains the project to widen the river was started in 1946, but this bridge was completed in 1958. C Hanchey's Flickr page also uses the 1958 date. I assume the truss on top carry pipes.

Kenneth James White posted
Norfolk Southern (and before that Conrail, and before that Penn Central, and before that New York Central!) lift bridge at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in me hometown of Cleveland. Known locally as the"Iron Curtain".
Brandon Lee Known on the RR as bridge one.

Cleveland Public Library Photo Credit, License: Released into public domain
Old and New - Construction 1956

(new window) You can tell it is a more modern bridge, the train is going pretty fast for a movable bridge. Fast train speeds would be important for Norfolk Southern and Amtrak since this is on their mainline between Chicago and New York. At 3:21, at second train crosses the bridge. At 4:46, the trains are done and the span starts to lift.

Wayne Koch posted
Cleveland OH Railyard NYC PRR 1949.
John Penca Bridge one in the photo was a swing bridge later replaced by a two track lift bridge which NS uses today.
Paul Volosyn Cool seeing one come off the Clark branch and heading west on the Chicago line. Also the B&O coming across bridge 464 (by shooters) and heading to the interchange with the NYC. Great photo.

Wayne Koch posted
Gem. NYC EMD F7 class DFA-2f 1671, Cuyahoga River drawbridge, Cleveland, OH 1960s NYCSHS.

Dan Nelson commented on Wayne's posting

(new window)  At 3:00, it sounds like the ship has a steam engine. Only the first two scenes are at night. At 6:20, Hulett unloaders are in the background! 7:49 shows the rolling bascule bridge. In the foreground at 10:59 we see how jointed rail becomes wavy if it is not maintained. At 12:32 you realize he has been riding up with the span.


(new window) Note when it raises at 3:57 that this bridge has very little clearance. Even small pleasure boats have to wait for it to go up. Even ski- jets and kayaks?

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