Sakonnet River rail bridge
bridge in United States of America
The Sakonnet River rail bridge was a swing bridge that spanned the Sakonnet River between Portsmouth and Tiverton, Rhode Island, and provided the only rail link between Aquidneck Island (Newport Secondary) and the mainland. It was closed in 1988 and removed in 2006–07
History
The first drawbridge at the site was built when the Newport and Fall River Railroad opened in 1864. It was replaced with an iron span in 1879. A new span was built in 1899 by the Pennsylvania Steel Company and served a succession of railroads; the Providence and Worcester Railroad took over the line in 1982.
The bridge was removed from service in 1980 after being damaged by an overweight train loaded with military equipment, which severed the rail connection to the island. The swing bridge was left in the open position to allow boat traffic to pass. In 1988 a barge ran into the bridge. Since then, equipment for the Newport and Narragansett Bay Railroad, a tourist railroad on the island, has been brought in by barge. The bridge swing structure was removed in late 2006 and the supporting piers were demolished by explosion on February 9, 2007. Only the bridge itself was formally abandoned; the tracks on either side are considered formally active to allow future restoration of service.
The public source identifies “Sakonnet River rail bridge” as bridge in United States of America. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sakonnet, River and rail.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7403054. Authority coordinates are 41.639, -71.213. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988, 2006, 1864 and 1879.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sakonnet River rail bridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.