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Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge
Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge
	Cape Cod Canal - Railroad Bridge
Carries	rail traffic
Crosses	Cape Cod Canal
Locale	Bourne, Massachusetts
Maintained by	United States Army Corps of Engineers
Design	Lift bridge
Longest span	544 ft (166 m)
Clearance below	135 ft (41 m) (raised)
Beginning date of construction	1933
Opened	December 29, 1935
Coordinates	41°44′31.04″N 70°36′49.44″W / 41.7419556°N 70.6137333°WCoordinates: 41°44′31.04″N 70°36′49.44″W / 41.7419556°N 70.6137333°W

Bridge detail

The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, a vertical lift bridge in Bourne, Massachusetts near Buzzards Bay, carries railroad traffic across the Cape Cod Canal, connecting Cape Cod with the rest of Massachusetts, USA.

The bridge was constructed beginning in 1933 by the Public Works Administration for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which operates both the bridge and the canal. The bridge has a 544-foot (166m) main span, with a 135-foot (41m) clearance when raised, and opened on December 29, 1935.

The bridge replaced an earlier, 1910 bridge. It is the second longest lift bridge in the United States, the longest being the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge between New Jersey and Staten Island, New York.

In 2002, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge underwent a major rehabilitation at a cost of $30 million and was reopened in 2003. The Bay Colony rail line on the Cape is used for a seasonal tourist train, the Cape Cod Central Railroad, and to haul trash to a waste-to-energy plant in Rochester, Massachusetts. ^[1]

[edit] Trivia

Since it was built by the Army Corp of Engineers, that makes it also the largest lift bridge in the U.S. yet constructed by a government department.^{[citation needed]}