Spuyten Duyvil Bridge
railroad swing bridge that spans the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City
The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is a railroad swing bridge that spans the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx, in New York City. The bridge is located at the northern tip of Manhattan where the Spuyten Duyvil Creek meets the Hudson River, approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) to the west of the Henry Hudson Bridge.
The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge was built to carry two tracks but now carries only a single track on the eastern side of the span. It is part of the West Side Line, and is used by Amtrak trains traveling along the Empire Connection. The span is used by approximately 30 trains a day and is opened over 1,000 times per year, primarily during the summer months for Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and recreational vessels.
History
A wooden railroad drawbridge across the Spuyten Duyvil was first constructed by the Hudson River Railroad in 1848. The railroad continued southward along the West Side Line to St. John's Park Terminal in Lower Manhattan and carried both freight and passenger service. The Hudson River Railroad merged with the New York & Harlem Railroad in 1869, creating the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, and most trains started bypassing the bridge, instead going to Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. An iron bridge replaced the wooden span by 1895.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Spuyten Duyvil Bridge” as railroad swing bridge that spans the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as railroad swing bridge that spans the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7581637. Authority coordinates are 40.878, -73.926. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1848, 1869 and 1895.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Spuyten Duyvil Bridge”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Spuyten Duyvil Bridge primary sources, Spuyten Duyvil Bridge archive and Spuyten research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Spuyten Duyvil Bridge”?
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- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
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This entry incorporates text from “Spuyten Duyvil 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.