Seabrook Railroad Bridge, Railway bridge in New Orleans, United States.
Seabrook Railroad Bridge is a railway bridge crossing the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal in New Orleans. The structure uses a steel truss design with a single bascule leaf that lifts to allow boats to pass underneath.
The Seabrook Railroad Bridge is one of four bridges built by the Port of New Orleans in the 1920s to provide railroad access across the Inner Harbor-Navigational Canal. It carried both rail and vehicular traffic until the higher, four-lane Seabrook Bridge opened circa 1967, after which it was restricted to rail traffic only. Two sister bridges, the St. Claude Avenue and Almonaster Avenue bridges, remain in service; the original Florida Avenue Bridge was removed in 2000 and replaced by a steel structure completed in May 2005.
The structure represents early 20th-century industrial advancement in New Orleans, connecting the railway network across the Industrial Canal near Lake Pontchartrain.
Train traffic has priority and the bridge closes 10 minutes before regular trains and 20 minutes before Amtrak services to allow for safe passage. Boat operators communicating on VHF Channel 13 can coordinate with bridge operators for openings.
The bridge is normally kept raised so boats can pass, and rail traffic is limited; when it is lowered, vessels must contact the authorities on VHF radio channel 13. Its horizontal clearance is 79 feet (24 m), with unlimited vertical clearance when fully retracted.
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