Was There a Railroad Swing Bridge Here ? 

Awesome Video as Always RailROL82

Nice footage and old trestle, may have been the makings for a swing bridge!🛤🚂

Great find!!!!

The bridge was probably moved from another location where it was operable. That base only has a gear and is missing all of the other equipment that would make it rotate. Old topo maps do not indicate a moveable span. You could check old navigation charts. Also, the adjacent abandoned rail bridge appears to be a fixed span.

❤wow awesome an old swing bridge

Very cool! I wonder if anyone has any pictures of the bridge from way back. . Thank You for sharing!

That bridge was built to be turned, moved, or opened originally or the operating mechanism would not have been included. A bridge is expensive enough without all of the machined equipment to make it open. From the heads showing between the ties in the center part of the span, it was always meant to be operated by hand or manually instead of power. At 3:05, there is a hole in the girder, now blanked off, that indicates there was a shaft that went through the hole to operate the mechanism to support the end and lock it in place for closure, also the tranition rails to bridge between the rails on the approach and those on the span so there would not be a large gap for the train wheels to have a smoother surface to ride on. I am convinced that most of the mechanism is still in place but part of the stabilizing gear to hold the ends of the span were removed for maintenance reasons. The two I-beams under the span end are now the bridge shoes or supports; there will be a like arrangement on the other end. By counting the ties, I think the span is about 110, or no more than 120, feet long. That would have given a navitable opening of about 40 to 45 feet maximum because of the size of the center pier, the abutment, and the skew of the track to the waterway. There is a gear that is meshed with the gear on the top of the center pier for actually turning the span. The other heads are for unlocking the span and moving the shoes that stabilize the ends of the span for train traffic. All moveable spans have this equipment to function properly.

Excellent Video! 🍁👍🇮🇳👍🍁

few years csx use to run a lot of rock trains in miami

You are doing a good job 👍

Great job as usual !👍

The presence of gears suggests that this was a movable bridge. Beyond a doubt.

Cool video. Too bad you don't have pictures of that bridge from back in the day. Bet it was awesome. If it's better for you to post on Mondays I understand. Anyway have a nice day 😊🌈

There sure was a swing bridge there..that arm in in your video is the sproket arm to manually open the bridge..it cannot be used because at both ends of the bridge the tracks havent got a gap( it would measure 1/2 to 3/4 if an inch) that would be needed to operate it. those 4 large pins that you showed in your video at the center of the pivot on top of the bridge are likely the locking pins that hold the bridge in the closed position and are likely stuck shut so even if the bridge still can swing open on its pivot it wont be able to due to the fact the center locking pins are frozen in place.

years ago csx had more trains

Roly, are you all right? Please let us know what's going on. Hope you're not sick

Don’t walk in the gauge how many times as railroaders did we hear that !😂

you should try and talk to a csx guy ask him about the trafic in miami

Be sure to look both ways :)

My guess is the bridge swings for boat traffic on the canal. Certainly more research for the historian.

By the way, they have leveled to piles of fill South of the Homestead Station.

Be nice to have train services to Homestead Miami race track ❤

Good video of this CSX bridge! You might be able to find out some information on this bridge from a local historical society or a local library might have some information on this bridge. It sure looks like this was a swing bridge at one tom.

Nice to see some of the homestead line still in use

What a great find! Nice bridge! There can't be a railroad video without Santeria. lol So many in this track.

It wouldn't be S. Florida RxR archeology without _la santaria_

One thing I have learned from your videos is that it doesn’t pay to be a chicken in Florida

Lol I was saying to myself "there's offerings there"

I remember the searchlight signal that was there like yesterday! And of course, the now gone FEC line a stones throw away, with its own signal. I still remember when I was a kid who walked along both lines and over the now gone Oleander Diamond and the concrete rectangular base still there which used to support an interlocking tower, I think. I could be wrong on this. GravelyDon would know.

csx is not very busy in south florida right

Looks like it was a swing bridge or they intended it to be one but they changed their mind.

but why does csx only run 2 trains a day one from waycross one from miami to waycross

howlong you think 0721 will keep running as long has 452 keeps running

We have an old swing bridge at Cotter Arkansas. Hasn't swung in like the last 60 to 80 years since the last boat made a delivery. Makes me wonder what kind of boat traffic you had back then to require a swing bridge at that location.

Nice job detective Roli Need to watching your back down there looks like you got homeless people living under the bridge Stay safe out there Roli remember wearing boots out there in field of study and research

Definitely was a swing bridge............