The Empire Connection
Looking at this bucolic scene, it is hard to believe that we are standing on an island of 22.96 square miles that is home to 1,626,159 people. This works out to 70,825.6 for each of those 22.96 miles and makes Manhattan the most densely populated county in the United States. An Amtrak “Empire Service” train from Albany to Penn Station is in the hands of General Electric dual-mode P32AC No. 716 as it ducks under the east tower of the George Washington Bridge in Riverside Park on a crisp winter day. The tracks are part of the former New York Central freight line that ran down the west side of Manhattan, reactivated by Amtrak in 1991 as the “Empire Connection.”
Top of the World
Boston-bound Amtrak Acelea No. 2008, about 14 minutes out of Penn Station, is curving north having just passed over the main span of the magnificent Hell Gate Bridge. The 1918 project was a joint venture among the Pennsylvania Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, and the New Haven. While the bridge itself is 1017 feet long, the approaches needed to bring the track from near sea level up to 135-foot shipping clearance and back down again bring that total up to 17,000 feet or 3.2 miles.
32 AUGUST 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
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