Portal Bridge
The Portal Bridge is a two-track moveable swing-span railroad bridge over the Hackensack River in Kearny and Secaucus, New Jersey, United States. It is on the Northeast Corridor just west of Secaucus Junction and east of the Sawtooth Bridges. Owned and operated by Amtrak and used extensively by NJ Transit, it is the busiest train span in the Western Hemisphere, carrying between 150,000 and 200,000 passengers per day on approximately 450 daily trains (an average of one train every six minutes over a 24-hour period).
Portal Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°45′13″N 74°5′41″W |
| Carries | Northeast Corridor |
| Crosses | Hackensack River |
| Locale | New Jersey Meadowlands |
| Owner | Amtrak |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Pratt truss swing bridge |
| Material | Bessemer steel |
| Total length | 961 ft (293 m) |
| No. of spans | 6 deck girder + 1 swing span |
| Clearance below | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| History | |
| Constructed by | Pennsylvania Steel Company |
| Inaugurated | 1910 |
| Location | |
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 (293 m) long. The bridge clearance of 23 feet (7.0 m) 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 (97 km/h).
Replacement of the bridge is the first phase of the Gateway Project. After initially refusing to provide any funding for the project, the Trump administration allowed the project to move forward in February 2020. The bridge replacement is estimated to cost $1.8 billion. Funding comprises $811 million from the State of New Jersey, $766.5 million from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), $261.5 million from Amtrak and $57.1 million from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Construction of the new bridge was given final approval to proceed in April 2022 and later began on August 1, 2022. The first track on the new bridge is scheduled to be operational in November 2025.