Old CNTP - New River Bridge
Description
The abandoned bridge and the nearby Robbins Tunnel south of it (also called Tunnel 15 by Norfolk Southern) were bypassed when the new trackage and bridge downriver opened in 1963.Facts
- Overview
- Abandoned Pratt deck truss bridge over New River once carried Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway's Cincinnati Southern Railroad (later Norfolk Southern), before being bypassed
- Location
- Scott County, Tennessee
- Status
- Abandoned
- History
- Built in 1879 by the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway, for its Cincinnati Southern Line (later sold to Norfolk Southern Railway)
- Builder
- - T.F. Pyott Bridge Co. of Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Railroads
- - Cincinnati Southern Railway (CNTP)
- Cincinnati, New Orleans, & Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP; CNTP)
- Norfolk Southern Railway (NS)
- Southern Railway (SOU)
- Design
- A 200-foot iron-modified Pratt deck truss over the river channel, flanked on either side by a 730-foot trestle of 4 Warren deck trusses, with a total length of 930 feet. In 1962-1963 when a new bridge bypassed this bridge and the nearby Robbins Tunnel, the 4 Warren decks were dismantled, leaving only the Pratt deck truss in these pictures in place, spanning the New River channel.
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 230.0 ft.
Total length: 935.0 ft.
- Also called
- NS New River Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +36.38046, -84.55299 (decimal degrees)
36°22'50" N, 84°33'11" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/719499/4028929 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Oneida South
- Inventory number
- BH 45669 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- November 5, 2016: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added category "Pin-connected"
- August 19, 2013: New photo from Michael Miller
- January 23, 2013: New photos from Alex Wood
- October 24, 2010: Updated by Matthew Lohry: Updated GPS location
- July 18, 2010: Added by Calvin Sneed
Sources
- Calvin Sneed - us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- The Railroads in Scott County - Includes History of This Crossing
- Matt Lohry
- Alex Wood
- Michael Miller - michael_a_miller [at] yahoo [dot] com
Comments
This youtube video of the Brimstone Railroad has a shot of the old bridge and also the new one. Skip to around 3:12 or so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEUH8CL5hMA
Indeed Ed. In 2007 the City of Cincinnati earned $19 billion from the lease agreements, so I doubt they will be letting go of it anytime soon. The fact the city made that much off it and the line still rosters as NS' second most profitable on the entire 22,000 mile system is amazing. A true testament to how much importance this line holds.
Alex- Good Catch! It was Southern RR first. The Lease has been renewed many times but the line still belongs to Cincinnati Southern and as an aside it is the line of the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" song.
In reference to Ed's comment, only a slight error there, the Norfolk and Western was not the NS predecessor to handle this line. It was the NS predecessor Southern Railway that leased the CNO&TP (CS) from the city. The lease expires in 2026.
Calvin,
The Cincinnati Southern is owned and was built by the city of Cincinnati. It has been leased for a very long time to the Norfolk and Western and its successors. It is currently operated by Norfolk and Western successor Norfolk Southern but if any parts of the line have ever been sold by the city of Cincinnati I would be very interested when where and to whom. There were several heated political campaigns in Cincinnati to decide that they would not sell the railroad.
The info I found from the old Cincinnati Southern records, shows this is the original bridge from 1879.. the bridge supports were strengthened to handle larger coal cars around the turn of the century.
It's possible the pillars were rebuilt and stamped with the later date.
Not the original from 1870's. This is the second bridge from 1908/1909.
i had read somewhere that this is a modified fink deck truss. not sure if anyone else had seen anything similar.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/tn/scott/bh45669/
Here are some photos of this old bridge before they took out all but the center span. I have some old family photos of the bridge that I cannot seem to find, so sadly these aren't mine. These are screen caps from a DVD from Pentrex about the rail line this bridge was part of. I highly recommend this DVD to any rail fan.
You can order said DVD here http://www.pentrex.com/rthdvd.html For a nice preview go here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_33Xe9XTMQ&feature=player_em....
First picture is a side view of the bridge.
Second picture is a photo taken by someone standing on the curved section of the bridge.
Third doesn't show the old bridge itself, but was taken of the US 27 road bridge, and in the background is the current rail bridge, and was taken standing on the old bridge.
I was really excited to watch this DVD and was even more excited to find these great shows of this bridge before they took down most of it. This program was filmed somewhere in the mid 1990s.
These images are copyright of Pentrex, and were posted with copyright permission from them.