Newark Bay Bridge (railroad)

New Jersey

In 1958 a commuter train ran off the end of an open lift span into Newark Bay, killing forty-eight people.

engineeringdisasterhistorical

On the fifteenth of September, 1958, the south span of the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Newark Bay bridge stood raised for a passing ship. A commuter train ran out onto the gap and went into the water. Forty-eight people died. Among them was Snuffy Stirnweiss, who had played second base for the New York Yankees. The bridge that swallowed the train was the third crossing at that spot, a four-track vertical-lift design opened in 1926. It carried two lift spans over two separate shipping channels, the longer one just under three hundred feet. Raised, it gave ships a hundred and thirty-five feet of clearance. Everything moved from one staffed tower set above the tracks between the two draw spans, where one crew handled the lifting, the signals, and the interlocking. In the Second World War, three hundred or more trains a day crossed it, feeding the port that supplied American troops in Europe.

This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
On September 15, 1958, a commuter train plunged off the south span which had been opened for marine traffic, killing 48 people, including former New York Yankees second baseman Snuffy Stirnweiss.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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