Name of Featured Place:
Newburgh-Beacon Bridge

Name: Aidan C. & Jared H.

Library Teacher: Mrs. Wright Jumpp

Classroom Teacher: Mrs. Dolfinger/Ms. Shirley

Grade: 5th Spec. Ed.

Our research question:

Why and how was the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge made?

We wanted to research the bridge because we found the top part very interesting, and we wanted to know more about it. We wanted to know a lot of things like how many cars drive across it every day.

Newburgh-Beacon Bridge Collage

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I Notice

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1. We notice there is a very long ladder.

2. We notice they use wood.

3. We notice two pillars.

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I Wonder

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1. We wonder what type of materials were used to make the bridge?

2. We wonder what machines were used?

3. We wonder how they kept the piers down?

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Newburgh-Beacon Bridge Making the Piers
(“N-B-Bridge-Making-The-Piers”)

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I Notice

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1. We notice they didn't put the top part of the bridge on yet.

2. We notice the mountains are in the background.

3. We notice the river.

4. We notice cranes.

5. We notice they put it together in small pieces.

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I Wonder

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Newburgh-Beacon Bridge Construction
(“N-B-Bridge-Construction”)

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1. We wonder why the train tracks are under the bridge?

2. We wonder why there are stairs and who uses them?

3. We wonder how they made the bridge stand firm in the river?

4. We wonder who worked on the bridge?

5. We wonder how many people worked on the bridge?

Aidan's & Jared's Audio Interview
with Mrs. Dolfinger
("Sabrina Dolfinger")

Mrs. Sabrina Dolfinger
Spec. Ed. &
National Board Certified Teacher
Horizons-on-the-Hudson Magnet School
Newburgh, NY

We spoke to our classroom teacher, Mrs. Dolfinger, who said that her Uncle Red worked on the bridge. Here is a recording of our conversation:















What stood out to us is when she said that her Uncle Red woke up really early in the morning and packed his lunch to leave and that there were not many Black people who worked on the bridge. He worked for the Bridge Authority. She also said not many people had a car, but he had one because he had a good paying job. He picked up other people because they did not have cars to drive.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gNgtwgMmZoOliYRrAmNWM0_mDtr3fpYh/view?usp=sharing

We spoke with Ms. Moshier, a Civil Engineer and Project Manager who explained the engineering of the bridge. Here is a video of our conversation:








She explained how there are some big pieces of equipment called caissons. Workers put them down in the water and then put cement in them. The cement makes the caissons very heavy so that they go down deep into the bed of the river. The workers work in cofferdams which allow them not to get wet. When they are done, they remove the cofferdams, so it is not in the way of the bridge. We asked how they knew how many piers to use, and she said it depends on the length of the span. She said that the engineer works out how many a bridge will need (Charmaine Moshier).

Ms. Mosher showed us pictures and diagrams of caissons, and piers so we could understand better when she was explaining how bridges stand firm in water. She also showed us diagrams of cofferdams so we could understand how workers and the place where they are working stay dry in water. After we spoke with her, we felt that we could explain how the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge stands firm in water and how workers worked in, on and under water.

Aidan's & Jared's Video Interview
with Ms. Mosher
("Charmaine Moshier")

Ms. Charmaine Moshier
Civil Engineer
& Project Manager
New York City

Caissons in Water
(Charmaine Moshier)

This is one of the pictures Ms. Mosher, Civil Engineer showed us to understand how bridges stand still in water. These will help you understand too.

Caissons get filled with concrete. It gets heavy and another machine hits it deep into the riverbed and then the bridge will not move (Charmaine Moshier).

I Notice

I Wonder

1. We notice that the picture is black and white.

2. We notice the top of the bridge looks like a curve.

3. We notice that it's winter.

1. We wonder how long this bridge is?

2. We wonder how high above the water it is?

3. We wonder how many cars went over it back then?

Newburgh-Beacon Bridge 1963 One Span
(“N-B-Bridge-1963-OneSpan”)

We looked at historical and current pictures of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. We took our time to record what we noticed and wondered, then tried to find answers.

On the NYS Bridge Authority's site, we learned that the North span of the bridge opened on November 2, 1963 and the South span opened on November 1, 1980. The length of the North Span is 7,855 feet and the South Span is 7,789 feet. At first the Bureau of Public Roads decided that they needed 4 lanes. Instead, the North span which was the first span was made with only two lanes because it was going to be too much money to make it wider. There was a problem. By 1964, as much as 25,000 cars caused a traffic jam everyday (“Newburgh-Beacon Bridge | History | Facts”).

The real, full name of the bridge is the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. It was given that name in 1997, to honor of Hamilton Fish, one of New York's Governors (“Newburgh-Beacon Bridge | History | Facts”).

As of 2019, about 50,000 vehicles go from Orange County towards Dutchess County daily and about 77,000 go from Dutchess County towards Orange County daily (Callahan).