Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge in which the bridge pillar standing in the middle of the water has a facility to turn the driveway by 90 degrees and thereby enable the ships to move freely on the waterway. An alternative construction method are piers on both banks (or near the banks) with one or two movable bridge sections.
If a swing bridge is to allow ship traffic to pass through, the existing barriers must first be lowered - accompanied by optical and acoustic warning signals. Then the ramp is either pulled in or slightly lifted off before the turning process is initiated. The passage can only be released for the ships in both directions when the longitudinal axis has been rotated 90 degrees. As a rule, clearance - possibly also subject to a fee - only takes place when at least one ship in each direction requests passage. If several ships are in waiting position in each direction , they are all allowed through en bloc and then the bridge is returned to its normal position so that traffic crossing the waterway can use it again.
Superlatives
The largest swing bridge in the world is the two -wing El Ferdan Bridge over the Suez Canal , 14 km north of Ismailia , with a total length of 640 m (2 × 320 m).
The longest swing bridge in Germany is the two-wing Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge in Wilhelmshaven at 159 m , while the Nordschleusen Bridge in Bremerhaven has the longest rotating girder (112 m).
Example of the turning phases of the Nordschleusenbrücke in Bremerhaven
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Swing bridges in Germany
Sorted by year of opening (in today's design). See also list of movable bridges in Germany :
Map with all coordinates: 
Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge in Wilhelmshaven Steel framework construction, built by MAN Nuremberg
Swing bridge in Nordhorn on the south-north canal
Swing bridge in Cologne at the Rheinauhafen
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Swing bridges in other countries
- Egypt : El Ferdan Bridge , it spans the Suez Canal and with a length of 340 meters is the largest swing bridge in the world.
- Albania : New Buna Bridge opened in Shkodra in 2011 over the Buna
- Argentina : Puente de la Mujer is a pedestrian bridge in the Puerto Madero district of Buenos Aires . It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and completed in December 2001.
- Australia : Glebe Island Bridge in Sydney opened in 1901. Pyrmont Bridge in Sydney opened in 1902.
- Belize : Belize Swing Bridge was built in Belize City in 1923 . It connects the two halves of the city, Northside and Southside, via Haulover Creek and is shot by hand twice a day.
- France : The Pont tournant de la rue Dieu spans the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris . In Aigues-Mortes a railway swing bridge crosses the Canal du Rhône à Sète .
- Italy : Ponte Girevole (Taranto) is 90 m long. Several swing bridges over the Brenta Canal , one of which is manual.
- Netherlands : Abtsewoudsebrug in Delft is close to the Technical University of Delft .
- Poland : Giżycko swing bridge was built in 1889, is 20 m long and manual.
- Turkey : The Metro Bridge over the Golden Horn opened in 2014.
- Ukraine : The Varvariwka Bridge opened in 1964 over the Southern Bug near Mykolaiv .
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USA :
- Government Bridge , the first bridge to span the Mississippi since 1850 .
- I Street Bridge , when it was completed in 1911, it had the heaviest swing bridge in the world
- George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge over the York River in Virginia , the largest double swing bridge in the United States
El Ferdan Bridge over the Suez Canal
Open, catenary-less railway swing bridge in Maassluis , the Netherlands
Swing bridge on the Tagus River in Lisbon
Closed swing bridge over the Mystic River between Groton and Stonington, Connecticut , USA
Open swing bridge over the Mystic River between Groton and Stonington, Connecticut , USA
Ponte Girevole in Taranto (Italy)
Swing bridge over the Lozener Canal - Giżycko (Poland)
Decommissioned swing bridge over the Yazoo River near Redwood, Mississippi
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Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke at wilhelmshaven-touristik.de, accessed on July 20, 2020