Rust On The River

It's probably been around 10,000 times that I have seen this structure from the bridge that passes very near it, i.e. from above it. Today I took a bike ride and discovered a part of the riverfront foot & bike path that was apparently begun, but halted before completion. Standing on the path I took this shot. I was amazed by what I was seeing. I've lived within a 20 minute walk of this for most of the past 22 years, but I don't even know what this device is called, much less when it was decomissioned. What it did is rotate the part of the rail bridge that was over the river so that, I suppose, the engine could be turned around or the line could be closed to traffic. You see at left a train track ending in mid-air (parallel to the river), and I'm standing under the spot where it would connect, were it to allow a train to pass.

I don't feel that this image does the place justice (the sun was always working against me) so I'll blip it again some time. It's at times like these that I can guess how well some of my friends, with kayaks and canoes, know the Schuylkill River. Now I know it a bit better.

A late development: It's a "swing bridge" and there are ideas under advisement to bring it to pedestrian use.