SECAUCUS – The guy with the sledgehammer wasn’t there (more about him later) but many state and federal politicians were.

This was for a press conference in the Frank Lautenberg train station to make the case – again – as to why the federal government should provide funds to replace the Portal Bridge, a more than 100-year-old rail link over the Hackensack River in Kearny.

The arguments are not new. The first – and the last – is that the bridge is more than 100-years-old. It opened in 1910. It is a “swing bridge,” meaning that when it opens for boat traffic, it swings horizontally as opposed to being raised. The problem is that after more than a century of wear and tear, the bridge doesn’t always snap back into place after boats pass by.

Enter a worker with a sledgehammer, who, officials said, occasionally has to hammer the bridge closed.

This seems a bit humorous, but the bridge’s overall plight is no laughing matter considering how problems with the span delay the many commuter trains going to and from Manhattan.

A new bridge would cost an estimated $1.5 billion and New Jersey says it will provide $600 million. Amtrak, a federal agency whose trains use the bridge, theoretically supports the project, but the Trump administration has balked at providing the rest of the money.

That refusal prompted considerable angst among the officials on hand Wednesday.

The impressive roster included Gov. Murphy, state Senators Sweeney and Weinberg and six members of the New Jersey House delegation – Frank Pallone,  Bill Pascrell Jr., Albio Sires, Josh Gottheimer. Mikie Sherrill and Tom Malinowski.

Pallone, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, said the administration’s failure to fund the project is “confusing.”  You have to think he knows better than that. This most certainly is a political decision, notwithstanding the fact transit projects traditionally have been beyond petty partisanship. But to put it mildly, things are different these days. And there is no end in sight to this battle.

Now when nine elected officials are in the room, all nine have to speak, even if they’re all striking the same theme.

Naturally, they tried to use humor and snappy lines to stand out.

Gottheimer said the Portal Bridge project could be the most critical in the United States.

Weinberg. who is 84, joked that “no,” she was not in the Senate when the bridge opened. Nor was she in the Assembly. as she said Malinowski asked her.

Murphy, who likes sport comparisons, noted that the bridge’s opening day was so long ago that the New York Yankees were not even known as the Yankees. At that time, they were called the New York Highlanders.

Continuing in this trend, Sweeney, a Philadelphia sports fan, said it was the Philadelphia Athletics who won the World Series in 1910. Baseball fans know the Philadelphia A’s as a storied franchise, but, in truth, they were gone from Philadelphia before Sweeney was born. No matter. It was a good line.

More than one speaker mentioned the occasional need for a worker with a sledgehammer to pound the bridge into place.

It really was a pity that “sledgehammer guy” didn’t say a few words.