Rating:
4 votes

NS - Willow Avenue Overpass

Hunterdon County, New Jersey

Photos 

Photo taken by Loretta Killian

View this photo on Flickr

BH Photo #239747

Map 

Street View 

Description 

An 8 rib, skewed, brick arch railway underpass, with coursed ashlar wingwalls and bluestone stonework forming the outer 2 ribs and the top edge along the deck. Each arch rib is offset about 2 feet from the next one at the base, but smoothly concurrent at the crown. This gives the arch a look of 8 arch "slices" laid together, for a very impressive effect. Wingwall on one side is straight and slightly less than vertical, while on the other is semi-circular concave and stepped down from the top of the overpass. Together the walls make you feel like you're being rammed down a funnel, even though the arch opening is easily 20 feet high if not more.

This is an absolutely delightful example of the mason's art, and hardly a brick has dislodged in the century and more since it's creation.

This one lane underpass is imposing in it's height, but most of the details remain in shadow most of the time. You have to stop and investigate to find them.

Facts 

Overview
Stone arch bridge over Willow Avenue on Railroad
Location
Bloomsbury, Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Status
Open to traffic
Railroads
- Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ)
- Conrail (CR)
- Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV)
- Norfolk Southern Railway (NS)
Design
Brick arch / Stone arch
Skew angle
45 degrees
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.65229, -75.09025   (decimal degrees)
40°39'08" N, 75°05'25" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/492370/4500163 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Bloomsbury
Inventory number
BH 53587 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Arch (11,302)
Bloomsbury, New Jersey (4)
Brick arch (83)
Central Railroad of New Jersey (59)
Conrail (859)
Deck arch (10,552)
Have street view (23,532)
Hunterdon County, New Jersey (150)
 Lehigh Valley Railroad (79)
New Jersey (1,216)
Norfolk Southern Railway (1,486)
Open (36,953)
Owned by railroad (10,320)
Railroad (13,687)
Skewed (4,770)
Stone-and-Brick Arch (38)

Update Log 

  • November 1, 2016: New Street View added by Dana and Kay Klein
  • September 25, 2012: Updated by Andrew Pearce: added detailed description and one of my own photos.
  • September 21, 2012: Added by Luke Harden

Sources 

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Comments 

NS - Willow Avenue Overpass
Posted April 24, 2017, by Loretta Killian (KillianLoretta [at] yahoo [dot] com)

I see this is listed as still actually used!! Wow!! It is beautiful!!

Thanks for using my pix of it. It is a fav subject of mine. I need to get over there again and photograph it.

I read in a CNJ history that the line was completed to Phillipsburg in 1852 so this bridge was probably built about 1850--52!! You just can't beat that craftsmanship!! Very few of the bricks have fallen out over like 165 years of heavy locomotives and carloads of coal and everything else. Truly amazing. I found it accidentally while driving the older alignments of Old US 22/Easton Turnpike/New Brunswick Turnpike.