page_title: Portal Bridge
section_title: Design and construction
hierarchical_section_title: Portal Bridge / Design and construction
caption_attribution_description: English: picture of Hackensack Drawbridge.
context_page_description: The Portal Bridge is a two-track moveable swing-span railroad bridge over the Hackensack River in Kearny and Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, just west of Secaucus Junction. Owned and operated by Amtrak as part of the Northeast Corridor, and used by NJ Transit, it is considered the busiest train span in the Western Hemisphere, carrying between 150,000 and 200,000 passengers per day on approximately 450 daily trains.
  Originally opened in 1910, the bridge was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in conjunction with service to the newly constructed Pennsylvania Station in New York City. It is 961 feet long. The bridge clearance of 23 feet requires it to swing open to allow even small commercial boats to pass underneath it. By the 2000s, the Portal Bridge was considered obsolete and train speeds are limited to 60 miles per hour.
  Plans to replace the bridge is the first phase of the Gateway Project. As of March 2019, the estimated cost for replacing the bridge was at least $1.5 billion. After initially refusing to provide any funding for the project, the Trump administration allowed the project to move forward in February 2020.
context_section_description: The bridge was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of its New York Tunnel Extension project, which also included the Sawtooth Bridges, North River Tunnels, and Manhattan Transfer station.
  The Portal Bridge is a 961-foot (293 m) steel structure with masonry abutments. The bridge consists of a 300-foot (91 m) through-truss swing span and six 110-foot-long (34 m) open-deck girder approach spans (three on each side of the center span). The bridge itself is partially made of wood.
  Construction of the bridge was begun in August 1905, and the bridge was placed in service on November 27, 1910, based on bridge designs from the 1840s. The bridge was designed to last 100 years. Overhead catenary to supply power to electric locomotives was installed in the 1930s.  Some of the bridge machinery was updated in 1931. Minor repairs were made in the 1970s, and major repairs to structural, mechanical and electrical equipment were completed as part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor Improvement Project between 1982 and 1984. In mid-2019 the bridge will undergo a timber replacement.
caption: The bridge shortly after its construction in 1910. Note the electric third-rail prior to catenary electrification in the early 1930s.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery14.0.8081.709", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:10 00:47:44", "Image ExifOffset": "2204", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "4DA40436C16E40B69C3F4A789B7943BE", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}