Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Until 1959 there was a coal dock up past the paper plant on the north (west?) side of the river. It was owned/operated by Cleveland Cliffs. There was another RR bridge that boats had to pass through to get to the coal dock. Does this bridge still exist? If so, does it still open for traffic or is there no longer any boats going past that point? Does the dock facility even exist? The rig went down in a tornado in the Spring of 1959.

Sorry for the late response, didn't check this regional page until just now, glad Steve B could answer the RR end of the question, but I can tell you that bridge mostly leads from the CN Yard in GB to the Georgia Pacific Day St Plant on Green Bay's East side, and is seldom serviced by train, from April 1 to mid December that train bridge is left "open" for ships and pleasure craft to pass through is only closed for a train and then re-opened once the train is through. In all my time chasing boats on the Fox River, I only recall seeing a train on that bridge-approach once. Normally the stone at Western Lime dock is dropped further up the dock where the ship dosn't have to say in the RR bridge, but they get a couple loads of a different type of stone each year that they want in seperate piles at that far end of the dock. Hope this helps!

Hey B.
The bridge in question is owned by the CN, but originally was the Green Bay and Western. The bridge is on their line from GB to Kewaunee, and was used by the "boat trains" back when the carferries were running. There was also, when I was growing up in the 70s there, a sizeable amount of industry on the east side of the river that was served by rail also. I think the CNW even had a job that used the GBW to go over and switch Proctor and Gamble. The GBW eventually got swallowed up by the WC, which in turn got taken over by the CN. How far that line actually goes east now I am not sure, possibly Luxemburg at the most.

Do they normally open the swing bridge for a boat to unload as seen in today's news pics? How much traffic is there to that dock and also over that bridge? What RR owns it?

-B in B