Thames River Bridge (Amtrak)
bridge in Connecticut and Groton, Connecticut
Amtrak's Thames River Bridge spans the Thames River between New London and Groton, Connecticut.
Design and history
The bridge was originally a Strauss heel-trunnion Warren through-truss bascule design, built in 1919. It was built by the American Bridge Company for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, replacing a span dating from 1889. In June 2008, the bridge underwent replacement which included the span's conversion from a bascule to a vertical-lift mechanism.
As built in 1919, the bridge's abutments and piers were designed to carry a second set of double-track spans, in the event that an expansion to four tracks was ever undertaken at this location by the New Haven Railroad (it never was).
Operation
The bridge opens for marine traffic more than four times per day and serves up to 36 passenger trains and two freight trains per day. The bridge sits 29 feet (8.8 m) above mean high water (MHW), and the vertical lift span opens to 135 feet (41 m) above MHW and provides 105 feet (32 m) of horizontal clearance.
It is one of eight moveable bridges on the Northeast Corridor through Connecticut surveyed in one multiple-property study in 1986.
See also
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Connecticut
References
External links
Media related to Thames River Bridge (Connecticut) at Wikimedia Commons
Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No.
The public source identifies “Thames River Bridge (Amtrak)” as bridge in Connecticut and Groton, Connecticut. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thames, River and Bridge.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Thames River Bridge (Amtrak)”, the useful work is to connect “bridge in Connecticut and Groton, Connecticut” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7709902. Authority coordinates are 41.363, -72.088. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1889, 2008 and 1986.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thames River Bridge (Amtrak)” 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.