Our video series, This is Huntsville, brings you the people and places of Huntsville, past and present.
This week’s video features the swing bridge—long a Huntsville landmark.
The bridge has been rebuilt several times over the decades. Its mechanism is no longer operational, but at one time it swung open to allow the steamships of the day to pass through. In its most recent iteration, the bridge’s operation was electric, but in its early years the swing bridge master used a massive key to make it turn. That key now resides at Muskoka Heritage Place.
Learn more about the key and some of the bridge’s history in the video below.
Watch for more videos in the This is Huntsville series on Huntsville Doppler.
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Emmersun Austin says
let’z re-energize the swing-bridge… @ downtown Huntsville a community resurgence!
brian tapley says
The old way of using a “key” and cranking the bridge by hand still exists in some places. A few years back, on holiday in Florida we came upon this system. The old bridge between the key we were on and the mainland was a swing bridge and just as we got to the bridge a young girl stopped us and we had to wait while she turned the bridge for a passing boat. She did it by inserting a big key and cranking the bridge open. Took her about 10 minutes and a lot of sweat, each way!
In New Zealand we came across a bridge that was shared by the railway and cars. It was one lane, with tracks in the center. It was quite long, maybe 800 feet or so across a coastal river mouth. You had to share it with the (fortunately not frequent) train. If you happened to be on the bridge when the train arrived, it stopped and waited for you and the opposite if the train was on the bridge first. Sounds strange but seemed to work just fine.
In the past I remember being told about the occasional traffic chaos when the bridge in Huntsville would “stick” for some reason in the open position. At this time there was no highway 11 bypass and center street bridge did not exist either so when this happened, the only alternative was a long detour through Baysville and Dorset or way off to the West on some tiny little back roads. Fortunately this was a rare occurrence and soon enough the steam ships ceased and the bridge no longer needed to swing.
After the last rebuild, our bridge will never swing again as it was made solid.