i agree. seems like there are many types of “swing” bridges. some swing up, some swing around.
and while a swing bridge may have spanned the canal in the orignal photo, i doubt that steel bridge ever “swung”. there was certainly no need after 1932
Probably an optical illusion, but the right side of the bridge in your initial post seems to be falling away from the left side of the bridge in the photo.
I remember reading, perhaps in Trains magazine, about a bridge built over what was technically (but not in actual practice) a “navigable stream” so the railroad by law had to build a movable bridge, swing or bascule or lift or whatever. They moved it once to satisfy the Coast Guard that “see, it moves.” It never moved again and never needed to. The technical requirements had been satisfied. Similarly Harold Russell’s multi part series on bridges in Model Railroader many years ago mentioned a bridge that had its motor removed so only a hand crank was left should it need to be opened.
I was looking yesterday at a large binder of archives bridge material that the Chicago & North Western Historical Society reprinted years ago and many bridges over rivers and streams were described as “movable bridge” but “no longer operated.” This makes me suspect that it is fairly common for bridges over water to have to be of a movable sort, but not actually moved often if at all.
From what I understand, lacking an engineering degree, a swing bridge does “swing” or pivot.
If it swings “UP” it would be a lift bridge?
I believe that is part of the design to lighten the weight at the far (cantilevered) end of the span.
We still have a venerable swing bridge here in Cleveland on the Cuyahoga River. It is also a cantilevered type and has un-equal spans on each side of the pivot point.
The New York Central main line crossed the Cuyahoga River on this swing bridge which was replaced in 1956, by the vertical lift bridge, which is still in use today.
Just based on the photo, and similar bridges I have seen up close, it seems much more likely that it did swing at some point and later the piers were rebuilt to make it fixed.
A bridge like that could easily date from the teens, or a little earlier and then been rebuilt in the 30’s or later.
Landing Lane is carried over the canal on a plate girder cantilever swing bridge erected in 1920.
The canal is crossed by a steel girder cantilever pivot bridge south of Landing Lane Bridge. As of 1982, this was one of five pivot bridges remaining on the entire canal