Anacostia Railroad Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Anacostia Railroad Bridge is a railroad bridge
crossing the Anacostia River
in Washington, D.C.
, USA. The bridge is owned by CSX Transportation
. The bridge has very little clearance below it, and this prevents boats from passing under it.
The Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road
, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad
, built the first railroad bridge on this site, which opened on July 2, 1872. It was rebuilt in 1972 and has two independently-supported spans. The bridge currently carries freight train
s on the Alexandria Extension of the CSX Capital Subdivision. Originally the bridge supported three tracks. This was later reduced to two tracks, and then one track in 2006.
On November 10, 2007, a unit train
carrying coal
derailed and caused the collapse of the northern span of the bridge. CSX had briefly closed the bridge in 2006 after it found high levels of corrosion and made repairs, and after the 2007 accident it again closed the bridge. The southern span was reopened 24 hours after the accident.
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
crossing the Anacostia River
Anacostia River
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. It is approximately long...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, USA. The bridge is owned by CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...
. The bridge has very little clearance below it, and this prevents boats from passing under it.
The Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road
Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road
The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad operated from Baltimore, Maryland, southwest to Washington, DC, from 1872 to 1902. The company was controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was the second railroad company to provide railroad service from Washington to the northeastern states, and became a...
, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, built the first railroad bridge on this site, which opened on July 2, 1872. It was rebuilt in 1972 and has two independently-supported spans. The bridge currently carries freight train
Freight train
A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...
s on the Alexandria Extension of the CSX Capital Subdivision. Originally the bridge supported three tracks. This was later reduced to two tracks, and then one track in 2006.
On November 10, 2007, a unit train
Unit train
A unit train, also called a block train, is a railway train in which all the cars making it up are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route...
carrying coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
derailed and caused the collapse of the northern span of the bridge. CSX had briefly closed the bridge in 2006 after it found high levels of corrosion and made repairs, and after the 2007 accident it again closed the bridge. The southern span was reopened 24 hours after the accident.