PATH Lift Bridge, Railway vertical-lift bridge in Jersey City, New Jersey, US.
The PATH Lift Bridge is a steel structure spanning the Hackensack River between Kearny and Jersey City, serving as a rail line for the PATH transit system. Its central span lifts vertically to allow boat traffic to pass underneath.
The structure was built in 1900 using advanced steel construction methods of that era. Its vertical-lift design was an innovative solution that could serve both rail and boat traffic simultaneously.
This bridge is used daily by thousands of commuters traveling between New Jersey and Manhattan on the PATH train. It has become a routine part of the journey for many people who might not even notice the engineering beneath their feet.
You can see the bridge while riding the PATH train or viewing it from nearby streets and observation points. Daytime visits offer the best lighting for observing the steel structure and the river below.
Inside the bridge mechanism are massive concrete counterweights weighing around 450 tons that balance the lifting of the central span. This early twentieth-century engineering approach shows how designers used physics to move heavy loads with relative ease.
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