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Modeling the B&O’s St. George float bridge ST. GEORGE, STATEN ISLAND, NY; JULY 11, 1976


This view, taken from the rail yard, shows the side of the float bridge and the finger pier that runs along side it. The freight car in the background has been loaded on a car float.


bridge. He did warn me, however, “Don’t fall in. I don’t have the time to pull you out of the harbor.” I wonder what the re- sponse would be today? I was to learn that the bridge at St. George was not original to the B&O. The railroad’s original float bridges here were steel. Due to corrosion and wear, their capacity was down-rated


from 100,000 lbs. to 80,000 lbs. some- time after WW I. At some point they were replaced with wood bridges, the last of which was destroyed by fire on June 26, 1949. In the space of just 27 days, the site was cleared and a sec- ondhand wooden float bridge was pur- chased from the Central Railroad of New Jersey in Jersey City. Hauled


across the harbor on a car float by B&O tugs, it was placed in service on July 22. This was the bridge I modeled. It was in service until the early 1980’s. While purchased from the CNJ, it is virtually identical to a still-extant and restored Howe truss B&O bridge at West 26th Street in Manhattan. That bridge was built new for the B&O. After spending another very hot July afternoon getting covered with creosote softened by the blazing sun I managed to cover five or six sheets of a legal pad with rough sketches and dimensions. Over the next couple of years I complet- ed a set of 24 sheets of drawings of the float bridge showing most of the con- struction details. Making a set of draw- ings is something that I almost always do when getting into a large project. It helps me to understand how the struc- ture “works,” enables me to think about the best way to model it, and shows if any selective compression is needed and how best to do it. While I was working on the draw- ings I attended a local train show where I purchased a cardboard box full of stripwood. When I got home I found I had most of the material from several, maybe three, Campbell wood Howe truss, through bridge kits. As it turned out, this provided all the material to build the three trusses and the floor


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DECEMBER 2011


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