About a month ago went on The Benjamin Franklin Bridge from Camden NJ for sunset photos. Seeing how I'm a lifelong railfan I shot some photos of the commuter train (PATCO) that runs from 16th and Locust St in Philadelphia to Lindenwold NJ. The "Benny" was completed in 1926 at the time it was longest suspension bridge in the world. The tracks were added later in 1936. The cars date to 1969 when tracks were extended to Lindenwold, they were however completely overhauled within the past five years with only the outer shell remaining from 1969.
In Philadelphia it's totally underground in the subway system, in New Jersey it's above ground for most of the trip.
First train is coming from Philadelphia going into the tunnel in Camden.
Second was a long shot of the train coming up from the tunnel in Philadelphia long after the sun went down. I like the way lights from the train light up the overhead steel and the rails.
Third is train going into the tunnel in Camden.
Jay Pat
Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA
Enjoyed all three.
#2 is very unique!!!
Pat
sb
Loc: Florida's East Coast
It is amazing to think of the engineering that took place before computers.
Nice series. Thanks for sharing with other FRN’s.
Mark
Good photos. However, no. 1 is g r e a t!
Thank you one and all for your kind comments.
sb: "It is amazing to think of the engineering that took place before computers."
I've read in the past how overbuilt this bridge is but couldn't find the quote. When this bridge was planned well over 100 years ago they didn't understand loads or load factors so they increased the size of everything. Believe it something in the 50X range. Just driving over the Ben Franklin Bridge and others in the area I can see the difference in the size of the steel members and cross bracing.
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