Ed, I believe that the bridge was oil or gas-fired. The east side of the swing span was non-navigable, so it would have been easy to run a gas line from Rutherford. In the years that I lived in Passaic Park and Rutherford, I never saw a train deliver coal or oil, and there was not adequate room for a tank atop the bridge. The pylon was made of wood, so that opens up the whole question which you raised. Are we sure that it was steam-operated? The next bridge south, the Union Avenue bridge, was built in the early 1900's and was operated electrically, with manual backup. Ken At 08:08 AM 10/2/02 -0400, MONTGOMERY| ED wrote: >The photos and discussions about the Erie line through Passaic >has prompted another question from me. I understand this bridge >was steam operated. I'm interested if anyone has an idea of how >this worked. I assume the steam boiler and engin were either in >the pylon that the bridge swung on. I don't think there was room for >it in the shack atop the bridge. How was this thing fired? I'm >thinking it was oil. Where would they store coal? This must have >been an expensive operation with a bridge that wasn't opened very >much in the 50s and 60s. I'm assuming that some sort of >stationary fireman or engineer had to operate this steam engine. > >I wonder why Erie didn't convert the operation to electricity in the >30s or 40s. > >Ed Montgomery ------------------------------
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