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From: "Paul R DOT Tupaczewski" paultup AT optonline DOT net
Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2003 19:24:24 -0400
Subject: A tale of two bridges
"Boonton-Fanny_Road_northwest_corner.jpg" - image/jpeg, 124751 bytes, 1024x768 (24bit)

Thanks to Gary Kazin's message, I decided to hop over to my old stomping
grounds of Boonton, NJ to try and capture some history (new and old!)

The "old" portion was getting a few more detail shots of the DL&W
concrete overpass of Wootton Street. This huge structure consists of
four large concrete "wings" to hold up the fill to get up to the arched
reinforced concrete bridge portion. The bridge is supposed to be heavily
modified (at least the east side of it) to handle additional lanes for
the forthcoming Boonton Wal-Mart (more on this later). Note this bridge
used to have four tracks under it; the one remaining track is today's
"Montclair Boonton Line."

The "new" part of this is the new Fanny Road bridge at the west end of
Boonton. The new structure captures some of the feel of the original
DL&W structure here (notably the "suggested" vertical portions on the
wall, to look like the DL&W's "stakes"), and it quite nice. However, it
does have a large "cap" on the deck, right where the tracks are,
ostensibly to protect people from jumping? Fortunately, the classic
"looking east" view is still obtainable from the south end of the wall.
The old West Boonton yard has disappeared in a forest of trees, and even
the second main through town (which NJT cleared of brush a few years
back and stored retired Mus there) is now being re-encroached by
vegetation. Sigh.

While looking at the Wootton St. bridge, I went to the north end of the
bridge and took a photo of the Drew Chemical property, and how it
appears today. You'd never guess this was the location of the EL's 5th
largest customer! :( The photo shows Wootton St. in the foreground
(running left-to-right) and Division Street straight ahead.

Check out the attached images - the filenames are pretty
self-explanatory!

- Paul


Boonton-Fanny_Road_northwest_corner.jpg

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