Rome has the Coliseum, Cairo has the Pyramids, and Newark, NJ has NX Drawbridge over the Passaic River. Once a key point on the Erie Railroad's Newark Branch, this bridge (constructed in 1922) saw its last passenger train under Erie Lackawanna ownership in October 1966 and its last freight train in October 1977. During November 1977, the bridge was raised permanently and abandoned. It saw a brief renaissance in 1984 for the filming of the movie Annie (see this YouTube clip of the film), but has not had any regular maintenance since that movie shoot. In the late 1980s, a fire gutted the bridge's control tower, destroying its operating machinery and any hope for future use. In 2007, a low hanging bridge east of this location was removed, thus severing any future rail access to this relic. The designer of this bridge, Joseph Strauss, also designed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The tracks in the foreground (also abandoned) served industry along the river and spurred of the Newark Branch.
