8. Later, the Drawbridge Was Replaced by a Metal Swing Bridge

Photo by @ChorBazaar

In 1882, a new steel structure was built to replace the wooden bridge, and also became known as the Penny Bridge. It was designed as a swing bridge, a type that featured a turntable mechanism set on its own island mid-point across the creek that swung open and closed, depending on whether carriage or boat traffic needed passage.

There were often problems. The turntable broke more than once, and the bridge was unusable at one point for three months. The island that supported the pivot took up almost a third of the entire width of the creek, leaving narrow boat passages on either side of it, resulting in constant slowdowns while boats crawled through the undersized chutes when they weren’t banging into the piers