(rshsdepot) Lackawanna Cutoff Delaware River Bridge Purchased

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Photo links:
http://www.railwayresearch.com/WaterGapViaduct2.html  (view atop bridge
November 2001)
http://www.njskylands.com/Images/svViaduct.gif  (contemporary ground view)
http://gelwood.railfan.net/bldg/dlw-oldline.jpg  (early 20th Century view)


Bridge buy seen as step in rail line from Pa. to Hoboken
02/27/02

By F. DAVID HOFF
The Express-Times

The picturesque multiple-arch railroad bridge over the Delaware River
between Knowlton Township and Upper Mount Bethel Township has become a $4
million Pennsylvania contribution to restoration of the Lackawanna Cutoff.
The towering concrete bridge, completed about 1910, was purchased by a
Kearny businessman after the rail line was abandoned in the 1970s. It was
acquired by the New Jersey Department of Transportation when the state
negotiated a $21 million buy-back of the 28-mile cutoff right of way but was
not included in those condemnation proceedings.
Now, the New Jersey commissioner of transportation has sold the bridge and
1.77-miles of the former Erie Lackawanna Main Line to the Monroe County Rail
Authority for $4 million in a deed recorded in the office of Warren County
Clerk Terrance D. Lee.
Bob Hay, chairman of the county rail authority, said Monroe County's
purchase of the bridge had been agreed on for several years. He said the $4
million came from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Reviving passenger train service on the former rail line across Warren,
Sussex and Morris counties would offer a mass transit alternative to
congested highway travel between northeastern Pennsylvania and metropolitan
New Jersey. It would complete a rail link between Scranton, Pa., and
Hoboken, N.J., where there is access to New York.
Asked if the bridge transaction brings the rail project any closer to
realization, Hay answered, "Yes. Anytime the state invests $4 million in a
project, you know it has priority. We'll keep working for state and federal
funding. We're probably looking at 2006 (for reopening rail service on the
cutoff), depending on funding," he added.

The extant railroad structures database is on the
RSHS Website: http://www.rrshs.org

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