Delaware River Viaduct
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The Delaware River Viaduct is the sister bridge of the Paulinskill Viaduct on the Lackawanna Cut-Off rail line in northwestern New Jersey. Built in 1908-11, this reinforced concrete bridge crosses the Delaware River about two miles south of the Delaware Water Gap. It also crosses Interstate 80 on the New Jersey side of the river at that location.
The bridge is 1,450 feet long and 65 feet high from water level to the top of the rail, and is composed of five 150 foot spans and two 120 foot spans. The footers go down 26 feet to bedrock. A total of 51,376 cubic feet of concrete and 627 tons of reinforcing steel were used to construct this bridge.
Although the tracks were removed from the New Jersey portion of the Cut-Off by Conrail in 1984, the tracks remained on the Delaware River Viaduct for several more years.
The viaduct has the distinction of being the largest reinforced concrete object to have been built with a continuous pour process. In view of this, a legend has persisted that several workers lost their lives, are buried in the bridge, because they fell into the concrete during construction and could not be saved because of the continuous pour process. There is no proof that this actually happened, and given what is known about how the bridge was built appears to be very unlikely.
NJ Transit is in the planning stages for restoration of rail service along this line into Pennsylvania.
