Does anyone know how many railroad swing bridges exist in the U.S. whether operating or not? Thanks.
The railroad B&B folks are of course going to say,“Way too many !”, even though they represent a source of almost continuously guaranteed income. [:-,]
In the absence of any better knowledge or documentation, I would hazard a guess at the 200 to 300 range, or about 4 to 6 per state, on average. There must be a database of some kind which lists them and their principal characteristics, but I don’t know of any other than general bridge websites for the Pittsburgh and Kentucky areas, and perhaps 1 national website (“Bridgehunters” - see: http://bridgehunter.com/ ).
Doing a quick search there for “Design: MOVABLE - Swing” and “Owner: PRIVATE - Railroad Company” yielded 145 results, quite a few of which I recognized. But those results do not appear to include the little manually-operated swing bridge in Lewes, Delaware, over the Intracoastal Waterway/ Lewes - Rehoboth Beach Canal there, so that website’s comprehensiveness and accuracy may be open to some speculation.
- Paul North.
Need to know…there are swing bridges I know of that are still in use by railroads but no longer swing, and there are former railroad swing bridges that are used as parts of bike paths, etc. Are both types included?
If so, I can come up with seven in western Lower Michigan, at least four in Chicagoland, and Amtrak’s swing bridge in Michigan City.
I don’t know how many there are. But they are the main way the railroads get across the Mississippi between Hastings, MN and St. Louis, MO. (Go Cards!)
The spendthrift US Government is paying to replace them with lift spans as a gift to the barge people.
I’ve always wondered how they worked. Here’s a video that shows how it’s done.
As Paul North recommended: The Bridge Hunter web site @ http://bridgehunter.com/ . Is a pretty good resource for all sorts of bridges; both active, and repurposed for uses other than originally intended.
And then there is the double swing span bridge at Omaha (and I don’t know how you count the IC-CCP-OB&T structure that has been out of service since 1980)
And how about this oddity?
Check out the span immediately to the right of the raised span in the image above. It was the only movable part of this bridge prior to slackwater coming to the Columbia River as the result of dam construction. Since the river level was raised, a new lift span was constructed, but the unused swing span remains in place.
Image linked from, and more info here:
It appears that the lift span is about twice as wide as the swing bridge. That would be in line with the present standards of waterway width ? The construction of the lift span adjacent to the swing span probably is much easier, cheaper, and quicker than replacing right on top of a swing span ? I would imagine that civil engineers wish all replacements of swing bridges could be accomplished the same way ?
New York City Transit has one swinq bridge and one lift bridge, both are aligned for the railroad unless needed for navigation. AMTK has a swing bridge across the same water as the NYCT Broadway bridge, but that is normally open to water traffic and closed when a train needs to use it. That is a much lower to the water bridge than the Broadway Lift Bridge. New York Circle line can pass under the Broadway Bridge but no body but a row boat could pass under the AMTK bridge if that is aligned for trains.
ROAR
UP at Clinton IA
Where does the bridge tender go when the river freezes.
Out of service bridge where I go fishin’ on the Choptank River in Denton Maryland.
Is the Amtrak bridge the one at Spuyten Duyvil, crossing the Harlem River at the northern tip of Manhattan Island ? And is the NYCTA lift bridge a few blocks east where Broadway crosses the same waterway ?
- Paul North.
Duluth MN - Superior WI has one active one (BNSF Grassy Point) and one stationary one (CN Oliver Bridge).
The CN St Mary’s River crossing between the USA and Canada at Sault St Marie MI - Ontario includes a swing span, a lift span, and a draw bridge in one crossing.
Near downtown Racine, WI on UP’s Kenosha sub, from the west side of the bridge:
UP 2975-2955 Root River Racine by Jim53171, on Flickr
A view from the east side of the bridge:
Vulcan Rock Job Over Root River Racine by Jim53171, on Flickr
New York State will soon have one less swing bridge. The RW&O bridge at Charlotte (near Rochester) is in the process of being dismantled, from what I hear.
It’s been a few years since the bridge saw any traffic.
Has anyone put a collection of these swing bridges in an archive of some sort?[*-)]
The gas station a few blocks away.[;)]
One year they had them pulling up the outbound crew’s paperwork at the Clinton yard office.
Once a few years back, one of the bridge tenders was in violation of Rule G. The bridge was open. The dispatcher tried to get him on the radio to request him to close the bridge and line up some trains. He did finally answer the telephone, but would hang up on the callers. By that time there were more people trying to get hold of the bridge tender, besides the dispatcher. They finally had to get a boat to go out and relieve this person.
They do have a boat available, but it’s kept tied up to the bridge’s center pivot pier. It’s there in case the bridge “breaks” in the open position so the tender has a way off the bridge. This emergency option has been used a time or two.
Jeff
A picture of all 3 bridges open at the same time would be quite the photographic and bridge aficionado “hat trick”, methinks ! (And one for the “Would you believe it ?” column.)
- Paul North.