List of crossings of the Upper Passaic River

This article is about crossings of the Passaic upstream of the Dundee Dam. For those downstream, see List of crossings of the Lower Passaic River.

Passaic River Bridge

The Upper Passaic River in New Jersey is the section of the Passaic River above the Dundee Dam, including the Great Falls. The entire river flows for 81 miles from its river's source in Mendham to the river mouth at Newark Bay in the northeastern part of the state.[1] The Passaic traverses 45 municipalities, and its watershed provides drinking water for more than 3.5 million people in the region.[2][3] The midpoint of the upper river generally delineates the Passaic-Bergen, Passaic-Essex, Essex-Morris, Morris-Union and sections of the Morris-Somerset county lines.

There are over 110 crossings along the lower and upper river[4][5][6][7] including vehicular[8][9] and rail bridges.[8][10] The upper reaches are also crossed by footbridges, dams, culverts, and a pre-colonial weir. In the colonial era the first bridge along the lower reaches was at Bridge Street in Newark[11] and the first over the upper river was Totowa Bridge, constructed before 1737.[12] The creation of Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures in 1791[13][14] began a period of development of cities and industries along the river. The emergence of the early railroads in the state led to further industrialization and urbanization and many rail bridges.[15] The flood of 1903 caused damage or destruction of most bridges in the vicinity of Paterson.[16][17] The advent of the automobile age and suburbanization in the early and mid-20th century saw the construction of highway bridges in northern New Jersey.[15][18]

At the Great Falls

Existing crossings of the Lower Passaic are PD Draw, Lincoln Highway Passaic River Bridge, Pulaski Skyway, Point-No-Point Bridge, Chaplain Washington Bridge, Harry Laderman Bridge, Jackson Street Bridge, Dock Bridge, Bridge Street Bridge, Newark Drawbridge, William A. Stickel Memorial Bridge, Clay Street Bridge, NX Bridge, WR Draw, Belleville Turnpike Bridge, Avondale Bridge, Lyndhurst Draw, Route 3 Passaic River Crossing, Union Avenue Bridge, Gregory Avenue Bridge, Market Street Bridge, Eighth Street Bridge, Passaic Street Bridge, Monroe Street Bridge and Veterans Bridge.[19][9][10]

Power transmission lines pass over the river several times. The Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) Northern Inner Ring Transmission Line runs from Metuchen Substation to Athenia Substation in Clifton via Roseland Substation and also includes right of way from Roseland Substation to West Orange Substation. The Pennsylvania-New Jersey Interconnection (PJM Interconnection) Bushkill to Roseland Transmission Line extends from Roseland to Hardwick Township in Warren County.[20] Jersey Central Power and Light also has lines across the river.

  1. ^ Cowen, Richard (May 6, 2007). "Not-so-old-man river" (PDF). The Record. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  2. ^ "Streams of the Great Swamp Watershed: Upper Passaic River". Great Swamp Watershed Association. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  3. ^ "2011 – 2015 Business Plan" (PDF). Passaic River Coalition. 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2016. The source of the Passaic River begins near Mendham Township where small streams come together to form a brook running along the edge of Mendham High School's athletic field. It continues through open farm land and eventually collects water from eight counties in New Jersey and two in New York. Forty-five municipalities line its banks as it flows into Newark Bay and the whole watershed contains 118 municipalities. The river is about 81 miles long; the 935-square mile watershed is the primary water supply for over three and a half million people and major industries.
  4. ^ "Crossings". tools.wmflabs.org. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  5. ^ "Crossings". tools.wmflabs.org. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  6. ^ "Lower Passiac River". Google Maps. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  7. ^ "Upper Passiac River". Google Maps. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  8. ^ a b "Interim Bridge Report" (PDF). NJDOT. August 9, 2007. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  9. ^ a b Federal Highway Administration (n.d.). "New Jersey". National Bridge Inventory. Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved December 10, 2016 – via Uglybridges.
  10. ^ a b "New Jersey Coverage Map". Bridgehunter. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  11. ^ Olsen, Kevin K. (2008), A Great Conveniency A Maritime History of the Passaic River, Hackensack River, and Newark Bay, American History Imprints, ISBN 9780975366776
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference HIstPat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ "History of Development". PVWC. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  14. ^ Friends of the Great Falls Archived February 14, 2004, at the Wayback Machine S.U.M.
  15. ^ a b "New Jersey Historic Bridge Survey" (PDF). NJDOT. September 1994. Retrieved November 7, 2016. Within the epoch of New Jersey's transportation history from the 17th century to 1945, two periods stand out as extraordinary for their rapid pace of change and growth. The first, running from about 1800 to 1860, saw internal improvements and technological advances such as turnpikes, canals, and railroads. They were all aimed at greater capacity, speed, directness, flexibility, and regularity of service than could be achieved by earlier modes of river navigation and overland travel. Historian George Rogers Taylor has quite correctly called 1800-1860 the "transportation revolution." The second extraordinary period of transportation growth occurred from 1919 to 1936, and was, in terms of historian Bruce Seely, "the golden age of highway building." During this period, New Jersey's road and highway bridges were substantially modernized to handle modern load requirements and increased volume of vehicular traffic. The result was to shift emphasis from railroads to highways.
  16. ^ Ensslin, John C. (September 2, 2011). "1903 flood still ranks as North Jersey's worst". The Record. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  17. ^ Leighton, Marshall Ora (1904). "The Passaic Flood Of 1903" (PDF). Government Printing Office. p. 23. Retrieved November 9, 2016. The bridges crossing Passaic River in Passaic, Essex, and Bergen counties were almost completely destroyed, and the damage amounted to $654,811. Within the limits of Paterson, below Great Falls, all of the highway bridges except two were either severely damaged or completely carried away. West street bridge, the first below the falls, was a Melan concrete, steel-arch structure, built in 1897, and costing $65,000. It was composed of three spans, each about 90 feet long. The flood practically split two spans longitudinally, the upstream side of each, equal to about one-third of the width of the bridge, being carried away. This structure was built to conform to the established grades of streets on both sides of the river and was completely inundated, forming a barrier for floating débris and practically making a dam in the river. Main street bridge is a 3-span, steel-arch structure, which was completely covered during the flood, but was only slightly injured. Arch street bridge, built in 1902 to take the place of a structure carried away by the March flood, was a concrete-arch bridge of three spans. It was undermined at the north pier and collapsed, being practically destroyed. The original cost of this bridge was $34,000. Its piers presented a serious obstruction to the flow of the stream, especially as the channel is very narrow at this point. In addition to this, the bridge was of low grade and admirably adapted for deterring flood flow. Below Arch street bridge all the other structures crossing the Passaic were of iron and were carried away, with the exception of Sixth avenue and Wesel bridges. Those destroyed were designated as follows: Straight street, Hillman street, Moffat, Wagaraw, Fifth avenue, East Thirty-third street, and Broadway bridges. All these structures were built too low, and were inundated during the early stages of the flood.
  18. ^ KSK Architects (January 2011). "New Jersey Historic Roadway Study" (PDF). NJDOT, NJSHPO, FHWA. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  19. ^ "Bridges over the Passaic River". Passaic River Basin. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  20. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places". New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved January 19, 2016.