Bridge City Storm Light
Storm Light in Bridge City.
A BNSF HCSXLAL (CSX Gentilly Yard New Orleans-Lafayette, La) mixed freight train is seen stepping down the massive Huey P Long Bridge in Bridge City, LA. This bridge carries 6 lanes of highway traffic, and two mainline railroad tracks, up and over the Mississippi River just west of downtown New Orleans. While the highway takes more of a short and steep approach up and over the river, the railroad does not. To allow for a lesser gradient the railroad stays vaulted high above US 90 well after dry land on both sides of the river. The railroad portion of the superstructure is over 22,000 feet end to end. The Huey P carries a substantial portion of west to east coast railroad traffic over the river year to year. On the west bank western railroads like Union Pacific and BNSF (photographed here) make up and receive trains from eastern railroads like CSX, Canadian National, and Norfolk Southern, across the river on the east bank. The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad actually owns and operates the bridge, although, its intercity trains rarely need to use the structure. New Orleans is a bustling city for railroads, and without this bridge it all goes away. As a final note of interest: one may would be surprised to find out that the bridge supports do not lock down into bedrock. With bedrock being nearly 1000 feet below surface around New Orleans it was decided to sink the bridge piers into a fine layer of sand 170 feet below the surface. It is said that the supports simply rely on their size and mass to stay in place without true anchors.
Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Bridge City Storm Light
Storm Light in Bridge City.
A BNSF HCSXLAL (CSX Gentilly Yard New Orleans-Lafayette, La) mixed freight train is seen stepping down the massive Huey P Long Bridge in Bridge City, LA. This bridge carries 6 lanes of highway traffic, and two mainline railroad tracks, up and over the Mississippi River just west of downtown New Orleans. While the highway takes more of a short and steep approach up and over the river, the railroad does not. To allow for a lesser gradient the railroad stays vaulted high above US 90 well after dry land on both sides of the river. The railroad portion of the superstructure is over 22,000 feet end to end. The Huey P carries a substantial portion of west to east coast railroad traffic over the river year to year. On the west bank western railroads like Union Pacific and BNSF (photographed here) make up and receive trains from eastern railroads like CSX, Canadian National, and Norfolk Southern, across the river on the east bank. The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad actually owns and operates the bridge, although, its intercity trains rarely need to use the structure. New Orleans is a bustling city for railroads, and without this bridge it all goes away. As a final note of interest: one may would be surprised to find out that the bridge supports do not lock down into bedrock. With bedrock being nearly 1000 feet below surface around New Orleans it was decided to sink the bridge piers into a fine layer of sand 170 feet below the surface. It is said that the supports simply rely on their size and mass to stay in place without true anchors.
Thanks for reading and enjoy!