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| By: | Philip M. Goldstein | | Dates: | 5/1/2009 - 5/1/2009 | | Album Info: | On 01 May 2009, I was in the process of doing research on the former Procter & Gamble Plant located in Port Ivory, Staten Island, NY. As the property is now under the ownership of the Port of New York & New Jersey, NY Marine Terminal Department, it is a VERY high security facility and access to it is severely restricted.
I had made arrangements with Mr. Arie Van Tol; the supervior of PANYNJ Marine Terminals, the month previous to gain access to the property for my research. This included a very thorough background check. When I received permission to access the property, I was personally assigned to escorted around the property by Mr. Gary Smith, the Maintenence Unit Supervisor.
Now, while most vertical lift bridges are kept in the down position and opened for marine traffic, AK Bridge is kept in the up position to minimize obstruction to marine navigation on the Arthur Kill waterway, and is only lowered on a mostly fixed schedule to permit CSAO trains to enter and depart Arlington Yard located in Staten Island.
Our conversation turned to the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge (one of, if not my favorite, railroad bridges), commonly referred to as "AK Bridge", and I mentioned to Gary that I had missed it in the "down position" the week before when I came to Brooklyn on business. Now you gotta remeber, I lived in Brooklyn my entire life until 1998, and I never saw AK Bridge in the down position.
"Well", Gary says to me, "it is scheduled to go down later this morning". And then says "Hold on." Gary calls the AK Bridge Tender on his cel phone, who replies that the bridge is scheduled to drop in about 10 minutes for an inbound (east) container stack train!
Gary hangs up, says "Come on!" and we all jump (Gary, my co-author Joe Roborecky and myself) into Gary's official PANYNJ car and we weave in out of container stacks to get ove to the bulkhead directly north of the AK Bridge on the Arthur Kill. The bow of a container ship that is being unloaded, is almost directly |
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AK Bridge in the full up position - where it normally stays so as not to be a hinderence to marine traffic. It only comes down 4 times a day. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:59 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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79 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: Ten minutes later, PN-07 is still crossing it at restricted speed. As Arlington Yard is about 1/2 mile east (left in the image) the train doesn't have far to go. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:30:00 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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71 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
PN-07 growling up the 2% west approach. You can hear the locomotives whining from across the river. (The red splotch is a film defect. It's on the negative too. Sorry guys.) |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:41 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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66 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: PN-07 struggling up the grade. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:43 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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78 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: CSX 5393, 504 approaching mid span. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:44 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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| Locomotives: |
CSX 5393(ES44DC) CSX 504(AC44CW) |
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217 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: PN-07 at midspan. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:47 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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38 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: Now do you understand how big this bridge is? Look at how small the locomotives compare! |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:48 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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62 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
CSAO PN-07: CSX 5393 & 504 |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:50 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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| Locomotives: |
CSX 5393(ES44DC) CSX 504(AC44CW) |
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135 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: PN-07 still crossing |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:55 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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39 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
PN-07 - CSX 5393 |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:56 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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| Locomotives: |
CSX 5393(ES44DC) |
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65 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: PN-07 / CSX 5393 passes through the east tower & anchorage . |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:57 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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55 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge starting to drop. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:40 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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90 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: Half way down |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:42 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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39 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: Almost there! |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:44 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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37 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: Full down position - PN-07 gets the ok to start proceeding east. |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:45 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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39 Comments: 0 |
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| Title: |
AK Bridge: CSX 504 clears the east tower anchorage |
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| Photo Date: |
5/1/2009 Upload Date: 6/24/2013 7:29:59 PM |
| Location: |
Staten Island, NY |
| Author: |
Philip M. Goldstein |
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53 Comments: 0 |
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