Built 1911 Opened 1911 | NRHP Reference # 03000577 Added to NRHP 26 June 2003 | |
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Location Hudson River W of the West Side Highway bet. W 66th and 70th Sts, Manhattan, New York City, New York State Similar Weehawken Terminal, Pavonia Terminal, Industry City, North River, Riverside Park | ||
The 69th Street Transfer Bridge, part of the West Side Line of the New York Central Railroad, was a dock for car floats which allowed the transfer of railroad cars from the rail line to car floats which crossed the Hudson River to the Weehawken Yards in New Jersey. Its innovative linkspan design kept the boxcars from falling into the river while being loaded.
After it fell into disuse, it was in danger of being torn down and removed, but around the year 2000, during renovations of Riverside Park, following the example of Gantry Plaza State Park, it became a prominent feature of the park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Similar facilities are in use between 65th Street Yard in Brooklyn and Greenville Yard in Jersey City by the New York New Jersey Rail, LLC, which still operates car floats across Upper New York Bay.
As of October 2014, The NYC Parks Department is in the design phase of a project to "reconstruct, restore and adaptively reuse the 69th Street Transfer Bridge as a pedestrian walkway."