Long Island - Long Island City

INDUSTRIAL & TERMINAL RAILROADS & RAIL-MARINE OPERATIONS
OF BROOKLYN, QUEENS, STATEN ISLAND, BRONX & MANHATTAN:

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LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD

LONG ISLAND CITY FREIGHT YARD & TERMINAL
Long Island City / Hunter's Point, Queens

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Special Thanks are due to:

Steve Lynch, Dave Keller A great deal of images on this webpage are reused from their website: TrainsAreFun	as well as	Art Huneke for his historical collection and website: Arrt's Arrchives
and Conrad Milster for use of his tug images!

updated: 15 May 2024 - 11:10

update summary:	date:	chapter
Keller tugboat images added	5/15/2024	Marine Roster
maps added	5/8/2024
page created	5/5/2024

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Index

Overview	Property		Trackage
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Float & Transfer Bridges	Transfer 5 Bridge Collapse	Post Mortem	Marine Roster

Overview

Please note:
This page will deal only with the freight carfloating operations of the Long Island Rail Road at Long Island City / Hunters Point.
Freight traffic arriving over Hell Gate Bridge after 1916; passenger railroad or passenger ferry operations will not be discussed, nor will modern era of operation under New York & Atlantic Railway.

both above: collection of Art Huneke - arrtsarrchives.com

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The earliest reference located so far as to a freight terminal being constructed in Long Island City at Hunters Point; dates 1872 under the Flushing & Northside Railroad, but it is not noted if there was an actual float bridge in operation at this time or whether this was simply a pier station operation. From historical accounting, it was a freight terminal which received directly from bulkhead offloading or freight carriage from the passenger ferries two blocks to the south.

While passenger service is well documented: in 1861, the Long Island Railroad was persuaded to move its Brooklyn terminus (ferry) to Hunters Point. Travelers from Manhattan now disembarked here from the Thirty-Fourth Street ferry to transfer to the railroad.

Freight service is another matter. The only historical reference (of reasonable accuracy) is the following:

"When the road first opened in 1867, all the offices and shops were located in Jamaica. Since the road owned very little rolling stock and land at first, these facilities were poor and limited; one flimsy engine house blew down in a winter storm in December 1867.

Just as soon as the decision was made to fix the Brooklyn terminus at Bushwick, all the administrative offices were transferred there on August 5, 1868, and the engine and machine shops soon followed.

The problem of handling freight inspired the construction of a dock facility on Newtown Creek. The Brooklyn terminus at Bushwick was a mile from the waterfront and the single track line through crowded residential streets made freight car movements difficult; one of the most profitable viz. the handling of manure, was expressly forbidden as a health menace. In August 1868 the directors planned the spur to the new dock and in March 1869 a bill was introduced into the Legislature to permit such construction.

Over the summer the single track spur was laid from the main line at about the present junction of Metropolitan & Flushing Avenues north to the dock just above where Maspeth Avenue used to intersect Newtown Creek before it was obliterated by the Navy Yard. Whether there were cranes here for loading and unloading manure barges is uncertain; however, the railroad went ahead in February 1872 with another freight dock at Hunter's Point installing $25,000 worth of facilities."

The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I.
by Vincent F. Seyfried
Chapter IV: Operations: 1867–1872

As the population grew, and slowly migrated east from the city proper; so did the need for commodities to be delivered out farther and farther to the Island; as well as growing manufacturing industries taking place on Long Island to be shipped out west. The Long Island Rail Road was the only game in town. There was no competing railroads that could vie for freight customers on Long Island.

Freight car interchange via carfloating took place with the following railroads:

Baltimore & Ohio
Central RR of New Jersey
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
Erie
Lehigh Valley
New York Central / West Shore
New York, New Haven & Hartford
New York, Susquehanna & Western
Pennsylvania

The only land connection for interchange traffic to / from the Long Island Rail Road, was with the South Brooklyn Railway at Parkville Junction. South Brooklyn Railway is the freight subsidiary of the New York City Transit Authority. Subway cars both incoming new cars and outgoing old cars for either rebuilding or scrapping were handled at this location, as well track materials: Ballast, rail. rail appliances (spikes, tie plates joiner bars, cross ties; etc. Parkville Junction was located on the Bay Ridge Branch, which was 3 1/4 miles east of 65th Street - Bay Ridge Yard, and 8 1/2 mile south and west of Fresh Pond Junction.

The Long Island Rail Road would remain secure in this position on freight traffic even with the opening of the joint New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad / Pennsylvania Railroad 65th Street - Bay Ridge Yard in that year 1916, as the Long Island Rail Road would be tasked with local delivery of freight along the Bay Ridge Branch connecting 65th Street Yard with their yard at Fresh Pond.

The following year saw the opening of the Hell Gate Bridge on March 9, 1917; and now another, final link was in place: all freight car traffic that was transported throughout Long Island, (other than those locked within the independent contract terminals via carfloat) had to come and go through Long Island Rail Roads facilities.

But for those years prior to 1916, the only way carload freight traffic to western Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties; was reliant on the Long Island City freight terminal.

And so, the Long Island Rail Road Freight Terminal was an offline terminal from 1872 to 1917, then of which became an online terminal by proxy with connections to the Bronx and north via the New York Connecting Railroad (NYNH&H / PRR & LIRR) and the Hell Gate Bridge; and to the south and west via the Bay Ridge Branch (NYNH&H / PRR / LIRR) and to the carfloat terminal at 65th Street - Bay Ridge Yard; and by carfloat connection to Pennsylvania RR at Greenville, NJ. And since the Pennsylvania RR owned the LIRR after 1900, there was plenty of freight business routed to the LIRR.

Notice the yard in the middle of this intersection of lines: Fresh Pond Yard which would become a junction: to the west: Hunters Point and Long Island City, and to the east: Jamaica Terminal and all of Long Island. Not shown are smaller secondary freight yards, passenger branch lines or passenger yards. This would be the basic freight routes of of the LIRR after 1917.


Long Island Rail Road Main Freight Routes - Post 1916 Secondaries and Industrial Branches not shown added 08 May 2024	Long Island Rail Road Freight Yards and Terminals in immediate vicinity of Long Island City, Queens, NY Minor Yards, Secondaries and Branches - 1955 excerpt from New York Harbor Terminals Map - 1955 edition Port of New York Authority collection of author added 08 May 2024

As discussed on the NYNH&H / PRR / NY Connecting RR / LIRR page regarding the 65th Street - Bay Ridge Yard; routing through Brooklyn, over the Hell Gate to the Bronx cut several hours of marine transit through the congested East River as well as through often treacherous confluence the of East River, Bronx Kill, Harlem River and Long Island Sound at Hell Gate.

As such, even though their primary business was passenger hauling; the Long Island Rail Road turned a fairly good profit over the decades, in providing freight service to Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau & Suffolk counties on Long Island.

As would be seen with the other railroads in the Northeast; what with the proliferation of a vast network of connecting highways, and the Eisenhower Interstate System; freight rail traffic began to diminish in the late 1950's.

While the Long Island Rail Road ceased owning marine vessels outright in 1963, it would transfer their marine assets to their parent organization, the Pennsylvania Railroad; freight traffic via carfloat to the Long Island City transfer bridges would continue, albeit diminishing each year.

Following the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads; carfloat service would fall to Penn Central to perform. But even this would be short lived, with Penn Central filing for bankruptcy in 1970.

In or around 1972, the Long Island Rail Road ceased operations of their own carfloating; with carfloating services to the Long Island City location was now contracted to the Erie Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley Railroads (Report of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation - 1977, Railroad Improvement Act, Hearings US Senate July 1977.)

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It was very shortly after this set of Hearings, that carfloating to Long Island City ceased altogether in 1978.

However, it is imperative to note that freight traffic on the Long Island Rail Road did not cease and continued uninterrupted, by service via the overland route; through Sunnyside Yards and Fresh Pond Yard via the Hell Gate Bridge.
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Property

We are quite fortunate to have a good selection of property atlases dating back to 1873.

Referencing an 1873 Beers, Comstock & Cline Atlas of Long Island, clearly shows tracks to this location under the LIRR predecessor Flushing & North Side Railroad. However, at this time, this was believed to be solely a freight station with no float bridges. Historical accounting states that freight was brought over by passenger ferry just to the south at West Second Street.

Beers, Comstock & Cline Atlas of Long Island - 1873
New York Public Library Digital Collection
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
added 04 May 2024

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This next plate, dated 1891 and published by Chester Wolverton, it appear a pair of transfer bridges are shown at the foot of Fifth Street. Second Street has been renamed Borden Avenue; and we now see an extensive yard on the shoreline of Newtown Creek, which would be come to be known as Wheelspur Yard.

C. Wolverton Atlas of Queens Co., Long Island, New York; Wards 1 & 3 - 1891
Plate 4
New York Public Library Digital Collection
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
added 04 May 2024

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By this next plate dated 1903 and published by E. Belcher Hyde, clearly shows two float bridges and slips at the foot of Fifth Street, now being called Hunters Point Avenue.

E. Belcher Hyde Atlas of the Borough of Queens - 1903
Volume 2, Plate1
New York Public Library Digital Collection
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
added 04 May 2024
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By this next plate dated 1909 and published by G. W. Bromley, now reflects an expansion of the freight terminal with the addition of two more float bridges; actually the Mallory Design overhead suspended swiveling head block design, however by this date they were already modified by James French.

This plate also show the the area northeast of Hunters Point Avenue marked as a freight yard. This is what would become known as the Arch Street Freight Yard, which would be tied into Sunnyside Yards to the northeast.

G. W. Bromley Atlas of the Borough of Queens - 1909
Volume 2, Plate 1
New York Public Library Digital Collection
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
added 04 May 2024

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This next plate dated 1909 (revised to 1912) and published by E. Belcher Hyde, now shows details of Arch Street Freight Yard as well as the southwest expansion and encroachment of Sunnyside Yards to Hunters Point Avenue.

Also by this date, a spur leads into the PRR Power Station, located between Fourth and Third Streets and Front Street. This power station was built in 1906 to provided electric for the Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal RR Company, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which existed to build and maintain the East River Tunnels leading from Pennsylvania Station to Sunnyside Yards.

The facility was equipped with a coal unloading dock for scow to plant transfer; but also installed this spur for the removal of cinders and ash.

The four smokestacks located at the four corners of the building, gave Long Island City its very own Battersea Power Station! All we needed now was an inflatable pig to fly over it. (If you aren't a Pink Floyd fan, you will not get the reference!)

G. W. Bromley Atlas of the Borough of Queens; Ward 1 - 1909 (1912)
Volume 2, Plate 1
New York Public Library Digital Collection
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
added 04 May 2024

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1916: Bridge 4 & 3 (which would become 6 and 5) and Bridge 1 (pontoon)
Arthur Huneke archives
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection.
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This next plate dated 1919 and again published by E. Belcher Hyde, now shows the enlarging of the freight shed / station at Arch Street Freight Yard.

G. W. Bromley Atlas of the Borough of Queens, first ward - 1919
Volume 2, Plate 1
New York Public Library Digital Collection
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
added 04 May 2024

Unfortunately, this is where the property atlas editions end within the New York Public Library for the Borough of Queens and regarding to the Atlases.

We can presume that the land occupied by the LIRR has topped out due to urban development, with minimal to no further expansion of the yards or terminals should be expected; only rearrangement of track layout to make better use of already occupied property.

This would be (and is) demonstrated by the 1932 and 1942 editions of Port Facilities at Port of New York Maps following in the next chapter.

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Trackage

The Long Island City Freight Terminal was quite modest throughout its history; but it partook of the connection to the many routes that ran throughout Long Island.

From historical accountings, the freight terminal on the East River, when first erected; most of the freight was inbound with only trace amounts of outbound.

In later years, there was limited room in the immediate vicinity of the transfer bridges for car sorting, so classification and assemblage of cars for carfloats was located further east at the Arch Street Yard; then brought west to the transfer bridges.

Inbound freight likewise was brought to Arch Street Yard, as well as the Railway Express Agency Terminal located in Sunnyside Yard. From these locations cuts of freight cars would be blocked for forwarding to other parts of Long Island for freight customers there: i.e.,: one block for Ronkonkoma Line, one for Montauk line, et al.

In later years of operations, car load freight was brought to "Yard A" (between Thompson Avenue and Queens Boulevard) where it was sorted for trains for numerous switch jobs in the Long Island City area (Degnon, Bliss, etc) and freight for east of Jamaica.

The freight for east of Jamaica was made up for haulers(?) to be transferred to Holban Yard where it was again classified for East bound freights. Freight was also made up in "Yard A" for transfer to the Fresh Pond Yard for interchange with New York, New Haven & Hartford as well as some local switching jobs in that area.

An excellent accounting of LIRR freight service can be referenced here on Steve Lynch's LIRR website.

There were also numerous military contractors (Fairchild Aviation which was purchased by Grumman) located on "the Island", which received freight via LIRR.

unknown date, but post-loop connecting track
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection

1929 Fairchild Aerial Survey Photo showing all five of the six bridges in place! From left to right: #6 and #5 French Patents, #3 pontoon Wood Howe Truss and
Transfer Bridges #2 and #1.
Fairchild Aerial photo survey - May 8, 1929
Image ID 727284F
Looking southwest.
New York Public Library Digital Archives
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Fairchild Aerial Survey Photo - 1955
Looking north
Queens Public Library Digital Collections
authors collection

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Port Facilities at Port of New York - 1932 Edition
Plate 24 & 34
Note loop track connecting the Freight Terminal with Yard A (Passenger Car Yard) paralleling Second Street.
(digital) collection of author
hard copy: University of Missouri - St. Louis
added 02 May 2024

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Port Facilities at Port of New York - 1942 Edition
Plate 24 & 34
Some trackage reduced at the Transfer Bridges, but a spur into the Con Edison plant (former PRR Tunnel Power Generating Station) has now been installed (but existed prior to this).
(digital) collection of author
hard copy: University of Texas - Austin
added 02 May 2024
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Robert M. Emery map - September 1958
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection

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However, the size of the yard at the East River bulkhead should not be a determining factor or under-estimated, due to the fact that Less than Car Load (LCL) inbound freight, after being pulled off the cars floats were brought further inland to Arch Street Freight Yard, and Car Load Freight to the team tracks adjacent to that, the part of Sunnyside Yard where cars were "blocked" (assembled into trains) according to their final destination on the various routes of the Long Island Rail Road.

Therefore, in a certain kind of way; the yard at the transfer bridges and the tracks in the "alley" (between 44th and 45th Avenues) was now sort of a staging yard for loading to or unloading from carfloats. Actual less than car load freight transfer was handled a ½ mile further east at the Arch Street Yard.
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1952 Henry Raudenbush map - 1952
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection

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Float & Transfer Bridges

The history of transfer bridges at this location is a most colorful one and a bit convoluted.

Service started first with a single pontoon supported Wood Howe Truss float bridge about 1891, with a second added on an unknown date, but believed to be around the same time frame. These were located at the foot of Fifth Street (now 49th Avenue).

The Mallery Design of Transfer Bridge

While these were the first float bridges to be located here; in 1903 the construction of the Mallory designed bridges immediately to the south between 4th and 5th Streets (now 49th and 50th Avenues); the pontoon bridges were numbered as 1 and 2; with the Mallery type bridges numbered 3 and 4 (in ascending numerical order and when viewed from the East River.)

As only the richest railroads could afford the overhead suspended separate apron type transfer bridge which were built by the Pennsylvania RR at Greenville, NJ; and in an effort to create a transfer bridge that retained some of the virtues of those suspended bridge but without its high cost; Arlington Humphrey Mallery, an professional engineer (not a locomotive engineer) for the Long Island Rail Road, designed and patented a new type of suspended transfer bridge (US Patent #743,901; November 10, 1903):

via Google Patent Search

added 30 December 2011

In 1904, two transfer bridges of the Mallery design were constructed at the Long Island City Terminal of the Long Island Rail Road. With a primary emphasis on economy, Mallery avoided the cost of the apron suspension system by eliminating the apron altogether, employing instead two innovations to incorporate the needed flexibility:

First, he replaced the standard single two track bridge with two independently suspended bridge span of one track each, mounted side by side and of one track each. These were hung from a common overhead framework. This allowed one track to be raised higher or lower than the other, and thereby taking up some of the torsional stress. There was just enough clearance between tracks on the standard carfloat to allow four complete sets of girder and suspensions (French, 1917, 65). This ingenious invention was not claimed in the patent perhaps be cause itself it was not an Patentable idea.

Secondly, Mallery substituted for the regular apron a "swiveling head block", which was simply a 2 foot deep spacer block at the outer end of each bridge span. These would pivot at its center on a 10 inch cantilevered pin going into the middle of the beam under the track ends. In effect, this was a rocking transverse girder. This swiveling head block design carried the outer ends of the rails where each rail was hinged independently for up and down motion. This was designed to flex as the block swiveled.

As Mallery relied on the use of separate bridges for each track to take up the overall twisting and these blocks would only need to take up the twisting within the track gauge itself. The swiveling head block was essentially the only new feature claimed in his patent. The design was ingenious, but in the kind of rough service that these float bridges perform, puts a great deal of stress on every connection, and a swivel pin supported at only one end cannot take such a stress. In addition, the swiveling head block was too short to serve the various functions of an apron; in particular it did little to ease the vertical angle between freight cars going on to the carfloat.

One other change made to save on costs was the elimination of the rigid system of screw rods and eyebars that lifted the main spans (as incorporated into the design of the separate apron in the Part II above). Mallery employed the usual counterweights to balance most of the dead weight, but the actual lifting and lowering of the new transfer bridge was done by differential chain pulley blocks, operated by hand no less. Presumably this lifting apparatus was used only to adjust an empty bridge to the height of an incoming carfloat, much as pontoon type bridges of the time were adjusted as we read in Part I.

After the carfloat was attached to the bridge by way of the swiveling head block; the dead weight in excess of the counterweight, plus all the live load, was transferred via the toggles to the carfloat. Thus the weight put onto the carfloat was probably in excess of any previous transfer bridge design whether it be pontoon or suspended type (French, 1917, 66). In addition the supporting structure for the counterweight system was not strong enough, as would shortly be made evident.

The design of these transfer bridges caused the end of the carfloat to sink more than usual while being loaded, but apparently this greater submergence was not taken into consideration when deciding how high to make the towers that supported the counterweights. As it turns out, the original design as constructed, allowed 90% of the dead load to be taken by the counterweights, with the remaining 10% taken up by the buoyancy of the carfloat.

One day, not long after these transfer bridges were put into operation, the combination of a low tide and a heavily loaded carfloat caused the counterweights to go to their highest position at the top of the towers and strike an obstruction (the gantry perhaps? author).

When the loaded freight cars were finally upon the bridge structure itself, all combined weight: the "live" weight (the freight cars and carfloat) and the "dead" weight (the float bridge) of which was now unbalanced and no longer being counterbalanced by the counterweights, transferred this load to the weakest link in the suspension mechanism, which was the sheaves and sheave axles carrying the counterweight cables.

This resulting stress caused the sheave or sheave axle to give way, releasing all the combined weight and causing the bridge span to drop into the water, freight cars and all! Simultaneously, the counterweights which were at the highest point possible at the top of the towers and now relieved of any and all load, free fell the thirty or so feet from the top of the towers to, and through, the timber tower foundations and thereby destroying them in the process.

What might have been a routine day, must have turned into mayhem in a very short span of time! And as it turns out, a similar but less serious accident of similarity had preceded this one, taking place on the other transfer bridge (French, 1917, 65 - 67; Engineering News, 1911).
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James Benton French to the rescue

After this debacle at Long Island City, another professional engineer employed by the Long Island Rail Road by the name of James Benton French was brought in to correct things. And correct things he certainly would.

Since the use transfer bridge was urgently needed, he did what was requested of him: the minimum to return it to service and as quickly as possible.

In 1905 he repaired the transfer bridge using the Mallery's design, but increased the height of the counterweight towers to allow for more travel of the counterweight. In addition, to handle the live load and also to allow efficient raising and lowering of the bridge, he added screw supports raised by rotating nuts in the overhead structure, such as those in the system employed at other overhead suspended separate apron type transfer bridges.

He also strengthened the pivot points of the head blocks and made other improvements. The same changes were made to the other transfer bridge in 1906. But still other problems surfaced, including the frequent breaking of the 10 inch cantilever pins; so French added further support for these pins at their outer ends.

While these modifications as explained above may have solved the situation, they were nothing short of expedient. More problems arose and yet another French modification was needed: and a slip joint added to the threaded rod assemblies to allow sudden upwards thrust motion to occur without damaging the threaded screw assemblies.

Prior to these modifications, the slowness of the bridging at Long Island City had been a source of deprecating humor at meetings held by the Railroad Club of New York of that time.

Following the success of French's transfer bridge design, which was built for the New York Central at West 60th Street in Manhattan (constructed 1916); and since the pair of French's design constructed at Long Island City in 1924, the modified Mallory Bridges (that French had rebuilt) were replaced with another pair of French design in 1925, almost identical to the set constructed the year before.

Therefore; those newer transfer bridges would become numbered 1 and 2, the pontoon bridges numbered 3 and 4 (with number 4 eventually removed altogether and number 3 held in stand by service); and the Mallery / French modified bridges were numbered as 5 and 6; and the southernmost transfer bridges on the Long Island City property.

As a quick note, visual identification of the transfer bridges are thus: 1 and 2 (French, 1924) have a wide gap between the overhead gantries with a control cabin that bridges that gap. Transfer bridges 5 & 6 (1925) have the overhead gantries directly abutting one another (or siamesed).

The Development of Carfloat Transfer Bridges in New York Harbor, J. B. French - 1917
Plate III

5: Shows one of the original Mallery (left) and the French modified (right) bridges.
6: The swiveling head block (without carfloat)
7: The compromise rails and carfloat attachment (with carfloat).

Note in photo 5; how the horizontal girder on the Mallory design does not over lap the vertical support towers;
where as Frenchs modification also employs longer girders that do overlap and rest upon the vertical support towers (like a lintel beam) and thereby adding additional strength to the girder, and the transfer bridges via the cables.
P. M. Goldstein collection
added 02 January 2012

As we will see, it would be the failure of the original Mallery design that would lead to an engineering marvel. It was while making these repairs and additions to these transfer bridges, that French devised a new way of building a transfer bridge that, like Mallery's design, did not require a separate support system for the apron; but unlike the Mallery design, French's design would have all the advantages of a full working apron which was contained within the main span.

Any good engineer will learn to recognize the short comings of an existing deficient design and formulate a solution, and we shall read about this in the next chapter.

Long Island Railroad Information Bulletin - August 22, 1925
via Art Huneke

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LIRR #103 on Transfer Bridge 1 - date? (pre-1931)
The LIRR acquired their H10s engines from the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1928 and 1930. Only one H10s that the LIRR owned was built by the PRR,
however ALL were previously OWNED by the PRR and were assigned PRR road numbers.

LIRR #103
wheel arrangement: 2-8-0 [Consolidation]
Baldwin Locomotive Works
c/n 40932
ex-PRR #7205
built November 1913
cylinders: 26" x 28"
driver diameter: 62"
to LIRR - July 1928

(And I can't hear you over the sound of some of you being wrong that steam locomotives don't go on transfer bridges!)
Greater Astoria Historical Society

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Transfer Bridges #1 & 2 - (northernmost pair) - August 7, 1930
(note wide opening between gantries.)
NYPL Digital Archives
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Bridges # 5 & 6 (southernmost pair) - unknown date
(note conjoined / siamesed design of gantries)
LIRR Tug (steam) Garden City
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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Bridges 6 and 5 (already collapsed), and 2 and 1 - January 1971
Pontoon bridges 4 and 3 were once located between the two gantries respectively.
Dave Keller photo
collection of author
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Bridges 2 and 1 - January 1971
Dave Keller photo
collection of author
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LIRR #421 with idler car taking delivery of NYCTA R32 cars - November 1964
LIRR #421 [ALCo S1]
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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1955? Transfer Bridges to left, Passenger Yard to right.
The former passenger ferry terminal now appears to be being used as a pier headhouse for station carfloats
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
original higher res version wanted
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Transfer Bridges 2 and 1 (northernmost) - ca. 1975
LIRR #463 [ALCo RS1]
Tim Darnell photo
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Looking from the East River to the east at Transfer Bridges 1 & 2 (northern pair) - unknown date
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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prior to the November 15, 1940 opening of Queens Midtown Tunnel
courtesy MTA Bridges & Tunnels (Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority archives
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Long Island Rail Roader Magazine - June 1951
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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Long Island Rail Roader Magazine - November 1953
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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Transfer Bridge 5 - 1963
LIRR #406 [ALCo S1]
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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Looking west from "the alley" towards Bridges 2 and 1 - ca. 1970
Note the hemmed in confines of this area, which visualizes the need for additional freight track space as would be constructed at Arch Street Yard
courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection
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1970 Transfer Bridge 5 Span Collapse

I do not know if the Long Island City location was jinxed or not; but the Mallery bridge collapse of 1904 was not the only incident of a transfer bridge collapse at Long Island City.

There is conflicting information as to the date of the accident - April 1, 1970 (?) but it was definitely before 1976 on which date, Conrail took over operations of the various bankrupt Class 1 railroads in New York Harbor, and subsequently abolished carfloating operations on this date. It was also upon this date that the Long Island Rai Road closed the yard.

The anecdote from the LIRR Brakeman who was on the job that day, believed to be Herbie Rakebrand; as told to J.J. Earl:

"It was still daylight when we had coupled up to the first car on the float. I then swung down off the float flat (reacher car) to get between the flat and the first car and bent down to hang the (air) hose when I heard this loud noise. I jumped up and looked around and saw the engine starting to tilt and the float under my feet start to move.

I didn't know that I could move so fast but when it all settled down, I was safely out of the way.

When the new Trainmaster on duty came to the scene, he asked me, "How fast were you going?" This was the standard question asked at all mishaps,
found on page one of the New Trainmaster's Handbook.
"We were standin' still" was my reply. "Aww! Bullshit" came the bellow of the Trainmaster.

Words got a little testy until everyone understood that this was the boss.

To make a long story short, no one was injured, no one was disciplined, #5 Bridge was put out of service and Alco S1 #421 was cut up for scrap ( there were new engines on order anyhow.)

It wasn't long afterward that all floating operations came to halt with the advent of Conrail."



Transfer Bridge 5 - October 1972 courtesy of Steve Lynch / trainsarefun.com collection

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From close examination of the images, it appears that th outboard steel hanger cables or rods snapped from the equalizing beam to the bridge span, as the counterweight is still mostly in the air, and as the cables from the equalizing beam to the counterweights is still taut.

On the Bensel patent overhead supported separate apron transfer bridges (like those used at the Pennsylvania RR Terminal in Greenville, NJ; or the NYNH&H Oak Island Terminal in the Bronx); solid steel plate eyebars suspended the bridge spans to the equalizing beam; with cables used for the shorter outer transition apron.

On the "pure" French design at Long Island City transfer bridges 1 & 2; similar solid plate steel eyebars are also used as well to suspend the bridge span to the overhead equalizing beam. But it is clear from the images, there aren't eyebars being used in suspension of the bridge span.

But wait, why was something so lacking in strength and substance used? This could not be part of the original Mallery design, could it? This certainly was not part of the the French design, as I have witnessed thus far. This question sent me on a quest through all my images of Bridges 1 and 2 and other French Patent transer bridges; and with that; I made a rather notable and startling discovery.

Early images of the LIRR bridges 5 & 6 as well as 1 & 2 clearly show steel eyebars from the equalizing beam to suspend the bridge span. In the image seen below left; there are eyebars from the equalizing beam to the bridge spans. This image is dated 1958 (and is the latest image I have, showing those eyebars). This was and remains entirely expected.

By the image at below right, shows the derelict bridges circa 1980, and mostly intact. Note the eyebars have been replaced, and either steel rods or steel cables being used as a form of suspension in place of the eyebars! Furthermore, rReference the photos above of the day of the incident - thin cables or rods! Whatever they are, they are not as substantial as the eyebars were.

Replacing the original stout steel eyebars with a much smaller rod or cable would obviously result in a lower working capacity for the transfer bridge. Say nothing of corrosion, with their being in a salt air climate of New York Harbor.

When it comes down to it; I will still put my faith in an unaltered, original James B. French design, and not someone else's haphazard slapdash work - we are not talking about a muffler patch here. It does not take an professional physical engineering expert to see the modification was insufficient to the task. It's like a cartoon of Wile E. Coyote suspending a piano from the thread. I am surprised is lasted as long as it did.

We will probably never find out why this modification was done, only that it was done; and as a result, Transfer Bridge 5 span suspenders failed.

Never-the-less, the Long Island Rail Road now has a second transfer bridge in the drink during its history! And from the information, it was not repaired. Carfloat traffic by this time, had reduced to the point Bridges 6 and 5 were no longer needed, with 2 and 1 doing all the work.

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RETURN TO INDEX

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Post Mortem

After carfloat service ceased in 1976, and the freight yard closing in 1977; the property languished for about a decade. Slowly, the property, including the multiple track "alleyway" between 48th and 49th Avenues (formerly Fifth and Sixth Streets) from the East River to Arch Street Yard; was redeveloped into commercial and residential high rises.

With this urban development, saw a rise in the gentrification of former industrial spaces throughout New York City, and this included the Long Island City Hunters Point freight yards.

But, unlike other housing developments in other locations, the area's history was preserved with the creation of Gantry Plaza State Park. The centerpiece to this park are the two transfer bridge gantries.

Unfortunately, portions of the bridge spans were scrapped illegally. For the construction of the park, the City replaced the two partially scrapped spans with "pseudo" bridges at Gantry 1 & 2 providing a view area and allowing one to examine the construction of the gantry up close. Transfer Brdige Gantries 5 & 6 were left as they were.

derelict late 1970's
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French modified Mallery bridge to left (6 & 5), pure French (2 & 1) to right

Note the eye bar span hangers
both above: December 29, 2007
Paul F. Strubeck photos

Wikipedia entry:

Gantry Plaza State Park is a 12 acre state park on the East River in the Hunters Point section of Long Island City, in the New York City borough of Queens.
The park is located in a former dockyard and manufacturing district, and includes remnants of facilities from the area's past.
The most prominent feature of the park is a collection of gantries with car float transfer bridges, which in turn were served by carfloats that carried freight railcars between Queens and Manhattan.

LIRR LIC Bridges #1 & #2 - December 31, 2007
Looking east.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #1 & #2 - December 31, 2007
Looking northeast.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #1 & #2 - December 31, 2007
Looking east.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #1 & #2 - December 31, 2007
Gantry Tower foundation with individual counterweights removed.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #2 - December 31, 2007
Eyebar and counterweight sheaves.
Looking west.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #1 - December 31, 2007
Eyebar and counterweight sheaves.
Looking west.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #4 & #5 - December 31, 2007
Looking east.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

LIRR LIC Bridges #5 & #4 - December 31, 2007
Looking northwest.
P. F. Strubeck photo
added 16 February 2016

The Arch Street Freight Yard was retained by repurposed by Long Island Rail Road, as a electric passenger car servicing, and maintenance of way facility.

During this time, the Long Island Rail Road was performing freight service; operating out of Sunnyside Yard and Fresh Pond Yard. Freight car interchange and base of operations was relocated to the Fresh Pond Yard, with its easy interchange to the Hell Gate Bridge to the north, and the Bay Ridge Branch to the south where interchange with New York New Jersey Rail carfloating from Greenville, NJ.

However in 1997, the New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) was formed to provide freight service over the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, which is a public commuter rail agency and of which had decided to privatize its freight operations.

The New York & Atlantic Railway is a subsidiary of the Anacostia Rail Holdings Company, and the NY&A operates exclusively on Long Island and is connected to the U.S. mainland via CSX's Fremont Secondary over the Hell Gate Bridge.

Its primary freight yard is Fresh Pond Junction in Queens, with another yard, Pine Aire Yard, in northern Bay Shore, New York. The NY&A officially took over Long Island Rail Road's freight operations on May 11, 1997, with an initial franchise for 20 years, which has been renewed.

The NY&A interchanges with New York New Jersey Rail at the 65th Street - Bay Ridge Yard, as well as US Rail of New York located in Yaphank, New York.

US Rail operates the Brookhaven Rail Terminal (BRT). This is a truck-train trans-load facility in Yaphank in Brookhaven on Long Island, New York. The 28-acre initial site was built with $40 million in private funds and opened on September 27, 2011. It was projected to take 40,000 long haul trucks off Long Island roads and handle 1,000,000 tons of freight per annum by 2016. It includes 13,000 feet of new track, with three tracks for construction material, such as asphalt and concrete, and six tracks for merchandise, such as flour and bio-diesel.
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Locomotives

The Long Island Rail Road employed a large roster of locomotives over its history, both steam and diesel - electric.

Photos show many different locomotives from their fleet that rotated through the freight yard at the transfer bridges, so no definitive roster is warranted or possible.

When a particular locomotive is seen in any images in the above chapter, its manufacturer and model are noted.

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RETURN TO INDEX

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Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Marine Roster

1 tug, 7 carfloats in 1898.
2 tugs, 6 carfloats 1899, 1900

Tug Boats:

date built
(service dates)

builder /
location

official
number/
hull number

length

beam

draft

gross
tonnage

net
tonnage

former owner
"vessel name"

power

notes

"Long Island" (first)

1885

Brooklyn, NY

140784

103

8.4

163

106

steam

wood hull

"Gladiator"

1888

Baltimore Steamboat & Dry Dock Co
Boston, MA

86020

110.6

11.5

55 NHP

167

steam, compound
20" + 36" x 26"

"Wrestler"

1889

American Car & Foundry??
Boston, MA

30869

115

25.5

13.2

500

198

steam, compound
17" + 36" x 26"

2 boilers, water tube, 150 psi

"Montauk"

1895

Wilmington, DE

96.6

500

121

steam, compound
17" + 36 "x 26"

wood hull
2 boilers, water tube, 150 psi

"Syosset"

1899

Neafie & Levy
Philadelphia, PA

116895

102.6

10.5

700
71 NHP

20" + 40" x 28"

steel hull
2 boilers, water tube, 150 psi

"Patchogue"

1907
(1907 - 1959)

Camden, NJ

204384

90.5

25.4

11.6

800

190

129

steam, compound
18" + 38"x28"

steel hull
2 boilers, water tube, 150 psi

"Cutchogue"

1918

Wilmington, DE

217845

98.5

25.1

15.1

600

184

105

steam, compound
17" + 36 "x 26"

wood hull
boilers, water tube, 150 psi

"Quogue"

1919

Wilmington, DE

219419

92.5

25.1

15.7

600

184

105

steam, compound
17" + 36 "x 26"

wood hull
boilers, water tube, 150 psi

"Talisman"

1920
<1926>

Valley Iron Works
Camden, NJ

22000

94.2

24.5

450
61 NHP

188

127

steam

steam, compound
18" + 36 "x 26"

steel hull
2 boilers, water tube, 200 psi

"Meitowax"

1926 - 1963

Staten Island Shipbuilding
Staten Island, NY

or Jakobson Ship Yard ?
Oyster Bay, NY

226219

96'

13.3

800
(680?)

199

135

diesel - electric
(2) Ingersoll Rand
6 cylinder 4 cycle
single action
vertical, 13" bore x 19" stroke
Price Rathbone solid fuel inj,
water cooled

steel hull
sold 1963 to L. W. Bicaise, South Carolina'
sunk in transit 10/22/1963 with all four hands

"Number 1"
"Long Island" (second)

1930 - 1963

Pusey & Jones
Wilmington, DE

229322 / 402

104.6'

24'

13.6'

750
(550?)

186

129

diesel-electric
(2) Winton 6-121

steel screw
steel hull
renamed "Long Island" unknown date
Sold 1965 to Port Everglades Towing, of
Ft. Lauderdale, FL;
renamed "Battler", later renamed "Sandra St Philip"
Repowered, then completely rebuilt; in service until early 1990's.
Final disposition unknown

"Garden City"

1941-1963

Pusey & Jones
Wilmington, DE

240341

101.2

25.2

800

218

148

steam, uniflow
22" + 22 " x 24"

steel hull
1 boiler, water tube, 280 psi
sold to McAllister Towing, became the "Wm. H. McAllister"
scrapped 2003, in VA.

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LIRR "Patchogue" - July 2, 1932
northbound East River, NY
Percy Loomis Sperr photo
Dave Keller archives
added 14 May 2024
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LIRR "Patchogue" - October 11, 1944
East River; Long Island City, Queens, NY
Frederick Weber photo
Dave Keller archives
added 14 May 2024
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LIRR "Garden City"(?) - September 14, 1942
southbound, East River, Brooklyn, NY
(passing Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, taken from Williamsburg Bridge)
Percy Loomis Sperr photo
Dave Keller archives
added 14 May 2024
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zoom and crop on above image - September 14, 1942
southbound, East River, Brooklyn, NY
(passing Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, taken from Williamsburg Bridge)
Percy Loomis Sperr photo
Dave Keller archives
added 14 May 2024
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LIRR "Meitowax" - April 23, 1939
southbound, Upper New York Harbor, NY
Percy Loomis Sperr photo
Dave Keller archives
added 14 May 2024
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Carfloats:

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The following table is from the US Army Corp of Engineers, Transportation Lines on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Coasts - 1940, 1950 and 1958 editions; and edited to show only non-powered floating craft for the Long Island Rail Road.

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American Dock & Trust	Glossary of Definitions Indicative to Rail / Marine Terminal Operations in New York Harbor	Rikers Island
Astoria Light, Heat & Power	Harlem Station (Erie / EL)	Seatrain Shipbuilding
Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific	Harlem Transfer (DL&W)	South Brooklyn (NYCTA)
Atlas Terminal	Jay Street Terminal / Connecting	South Brooklyn Terminal / Brooklyn Marginal
Bronx Terminal (CRRNJ)	Long Island City (LIRR)	St. George Terminal (B&O)
Bronx Terminal (LV)	Manhattan Freight Operations - West Side Line (NYC&HR / NYC / PC)	Waste Management
Bronx Terminal Market	Military Railroads of the New York Metropolitan Area	West 15th St Freight Yard (CRRNJ)
Bronx Terminals - Harlem River, Hell Gate & Oak Point Yards (NYNH&H)	New York Container Terminal	West 23rd St Freight Sta (NYLE&W / Erie)
Brooklyn Ash Removal	New York Cross Harbor	West 26th St Freight Sta (B&O)
Brooklyn Dock & Terminal	New York Dock	West 27th St Freight Yard (LV)
Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal	New York New Jersey Rail / Port Jersey	West 28th St Freight Sta (Erie / EL)
Brooklyn Wharf & Warehouse	North 1st Street Freight Station (NYNH&H)	West 37th St Freight Sta (PRR)
Bush Terminal	North 4th St Freight Station (PRR)	Wallabout Terminal (DLW)
Comprehensive List of Transfer & Float Bridges Located in New York Harbor	Phelps - Dodge	Wallabout Station (Erie)
Degnon Contracting / Degnon Terminal	Pouch Terminal	Wallabout Union (PRR, NYC, LV, B&O)
Development of Car Float Transfer Bridges in New York Harbor	Procter & Gamble	25th St / South Brooklyn Terminal (DLW)
Double Ended Wreckers of the New York Area	Queens Subway Apartment & Loft Building	65th Street / Bay Ridge Yard (LIRR / NYNH&H / PRR)
G & R Packing	Railroad Operated Pier Stations of Manhattan	207th St Yard (IND / NYCTA)
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