Fascinating footage detailing the operation. Thank you.

Thanks for the video.will be modelling a rail barge on my HO scale layout.needed some details.

I am shocked and amazed to see that it is still there and being used! Worked for the Karl Koch Erection company that built the original World Trade Center and we had a staging yard for steel there back in the late 60’s early 70’s. Back then PRR had ceased most of the float operations, but crew members out of work but still under contract would hang out at the diner out there all day. Our area was next to where the yard rail cranes were kept with a lot of old steam units still in use. Regret I never took any pictures back then. Sigh..........!

Wow, that terminal is in horrible shape! Glad Tacoma has a much more modernized terminal for rail barges!

Wow, I wish I could shoot a video like that! That is awesome! I would drive a thousand miles to film that

This yard was the exchange point for the NH which had 2 yards with float bridges, Oak Point, and Bay Ridge, The NH owned the barges and tugs, in 1915 the NH and Penn started the NYCH RR to build HellsGate and Bay Ridge, the LI RR was fully owned by Penn and it owned the right of way from Fresh Pond to Bay Ridge, the NH owned the right of way from Fresh Pond to Oak Point including Hells Gate Bridge, the route was the only interchange point the NH had with the Penn which by 1920 was the majority stock holder of the NH, this is why Bay Ridge was run by the NH,

Thanks FL92002. Just viewed it and some of the others you posted.

Looks like you have some of the last footage of trains moving over this bridge. Hurricane Sandy damaged them beyond repair and they have been/are being torn down. Thank you for posting this.

Amazing to see how rotten some of the Infrastructure in the usa is! Scary!

Awesome vid!

Great Vid. Homesick, Originally from Jersey, now in Nevada. Moving back next year

The railroad has relocated the Bush Terminal pontoon transfer bridge.

Man this is so cool! I understand now why life is never boring in NYC! This would be a super job to have although dangerous particularly during hurricanes and nor'easters, but then that's probably one of those days when there are extenuating circumstances come into play. Like golfing in thunderstorm. Its not the rain that will kill you, but the millions of volts of electricity grounding out through you. I didn't see how the cars were chocked off. Did they set the manual hand brake for each car or just the ones at either end of the cut? If only set the end car brakes then wouldn't that create extra stress on the cars with their brake set? Did they do it some different way? Did they have chains that secured the cars? I know that freight car when they get their momentum there's no stopping them. There have been a couple of cars that I know of that have gotten away. One struck a car at a railroad crossing and the other I remember was the coolest and no one was killed occurred when a car loaded with plastic pellets rolled five or six miles down a track to draw bridge. One can only speculate that vandals released the car brake and nudging out on to main track. I'm not quite sure how they by-passed the siding switch, but they managed, who knows it may have been unlocked. The car rolled down the track picking up speed gaining momentum enough to roll up the grade on the trestle leading to the draw bridge. The bridge was closed to rail and open to river traffic meaning the bridge was in this case turned allowing the car to roll right off the bridge and into the Cumberland river. So today at west Nashville turntable railroad bridge on the west side of town there rests a rail car loaded with plastic pellets. To my knowledge it is still there today or have they caught the culprits who did it. One can only imagine the splash it made once it left bridge and gravity really started pulling down.

Did you see all the videos in this series? Be sure to see the first one, titled "Tugboat dual Caterpillar 3512 startup."

So they brought the old one from 59th Street to NJ? Were is it placed? In the same place as the current bridge? I cannot even imagine how that is supposed to work.

You're kidding. What will they use instead? Unless I am mistaken, I don't think there is another float bridge to use....

Really like the videos. Could you give a tour of the John P. Brown? The wheel house, engine room etc?

I am curious about all of this since I live in NC and for the most part, our rail transport is rail traffic with very little barge loaded rail cars, maybe some at our Wilmington Port . I am assuming this trip up the river saves time compared to railroad movement just on the rails. How much time does this method save?

How long does the entire journey and process take? How many cars are there?

I'd like to know the 'why' of barging trains to Brooklyn? Unless the rails in Brooklyn are not linked to anywhere else I'd think it cheaper to loop around, even if it was another 100 miles than all the effort to break apart, barge and rebuild a train. Anyone know?

Nice video. Is this in the New York City area?

Currently does this trip across New York Bay happen twice a day?

Have they ever had a derailment on the barge

You film like a peeping tom. lol! Good video tho.

Damn, what shitty working conditions.