we’ve got a bridge that swings

Yesterday afternoon I was driving around in the flats with Steve and Rachel and we happened to be about to cross the red swing bridge, when it started gearing up and swinging into action! What started out as a slightly boring (to them) drive around downtown looking at cool bridges suddenly turned into a fantastic opportunity to see this thing in action.

I had heard about this swing bridge thing from some coworkers, but didn’t really understand what people were talking about, because honestly, there are a ton of weird-looking bridges in the area. So the deal with this one is that when a big boat needs to go through on the river, the guy in the little hut on top pushes a button, and the whole bridge turns on this passive pivot in the middle!

It’s quite a sight to see! We stood there and watched as this thing turned and stopped parallel to the river, and then this massive, long, huge boat came through around the curves of the river! It was so long that it reminded me of the beginning of Spaceballs, where you see the spaceship, and it keeps going on for a ridiculous amount of time.

Anyway, it took at least ten minutes for this massive boat to come through, and the bridge swung back around, and the backed up traffic got on its merry way.
According to the Flats Oxbow Association, it’s called the Center Street Swing Bridge, was built in 1901, and is the only one left, which means that there used to be more! It’s the red bridge in the top right of the picture below. Who knew bridges were so interesting?

And there’s another great photo of the swing bridge at the website of the people that built the bridge, King Bridge Company. Scroll down once you get there to read more!

Bridge-Crazy

One of the things that I love about Cleveland is the bridges. The bridges, you say? Yes, those tenuous towering giants made of ridiculously huge but surprisingly majestic steel beams. Bridges evoke images of industry, and of past productivity, and of changes in store for Cleveland in the future.

Nearly everyone I talk to in Cleveland who is from Cleveland decries the sad state of things in this city. And then they look at me oddly when I tell them the things I love about it already! Maybe I am a hopeless optimist, but if you’re going to live in a place for at least a few years, you need to find things about it to love!

I love how immense the bridges are, and I love the huge steel beams. For me, they are a symbol of industry, progress, and strength, but also, in a roundabout way, they show our connection to and necessary deference to and respect for nature. Rivers are a powerful natural force, and bridges show our tenuous connection to nature.

My favorite bridge so far: the Lorain-Carnegie bridge with the fantastic art deco “guardians of transportation” statues carved into the tall pylons at either end of the bridge. I think the statues look like a cross between the statues of the kings of old in The Two Towers and weird superheroes that are officially named “The Guardians of Traffic.”

I may be a little bridge-crazy.

On my commute to work, I have my choice of about five awesome huge industrial bridges over which to cross the lovely Cuyahoga River. Yes, my office is in the Flats, right on the river, right where it caught fire. Woo hoo! I have also heard rumors that there is a salt mine around there where a relative of mine apparently worked. And I need to ask my uncle about my Simon relatives that, rumor has it, after moving here from Germany in the late 1800s, started a boilermaking factory in the Flats. Mental note to find out about that.