Erie Lackawanna
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From: "Ronald" rdukarm AT roadrunner DOT com
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:04:05 -0400
Subject: Re: (erielack) Strains on Railroad Bridges
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>> I followed the DL&W City Branch from the bridge over the Erie near the E
>> Buffalo Yard and for some reason it is missing Bridge 170 over Hamburg
>> St,
>> which appears on the 1894 City Atlas as if it might be an extension of
>> Bridge
>> 169, the Sidway St bridge. There is also no Bridge 172 as it skips from
>> 171
>> over the Ohio Basin Slip to 173 over Chicago St, which is odd because
>> there
>> was and is nothing between the slip and Chicago St. There must have been
>> a
>> reason they reserved the number 172, but I can't imagine any way to find
>> it out!
>> Henry

Henry,

When the DL&W filed their original ROW plans with the City of Buffalo in
1881, they planned to cross Smith St., the Lake Shore, Fitzgerald St.,
Katherine St, Sidway St, Mackinaw St and Hamburg St at grade. The LS&MS
protested, and two Commissioners were appointed by the Supreme Court (one
being Grover Cleveland), to settle the dispute. Numerous engineers were
called for testimony, and it was decided by the Commissioners that the
crossing over the LS&MS should be elevated. Because of this, all the
above-mentioned streets also had to be elevated. The Lackawanna formally
petitioned for this on June 5, 1882. The City granted the change. This
change may have caused confusion or renumbering of bridges. Or the author
just missed a page.

On the Sanborn maps the "bridge" over Mackinaw and Hamburg streets is labled
as an "iron trestle", although it certainly appears traffic travels under it
on the street. If you back up to Bridge 160 over the Buffalo River, the
second Buffalo River Bridge is Number 164 (161-163 missing). I'm not sure if
they intentionally skipped numbers. They eventually bridged over Abbott Rd
(S. Park Ave), and bridged over the Nickel Plate/BCK.

If someone had a bridge numbering system from 1920, it would be interesting
to compare numbers.

Ron Dukarm


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