The New River and Its Swinging Bridges
Near Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The New River made Fort Lauderdale, and to this day it interrupts it. This dark, deep, tidal river winds right through downtown, and for the earliest settlers the only way across was by boat, on ferries like the one Frank Stranahan first came here to run at Tarpon Bend. As the town grew, the river became something to conquer with steel.
When the Florida East Coast Railway pushed its tracks over the water, and when roads like Andrews Avenue followed, the crossings had to open for the tall masts and yachts moving to the sea, so the city filled with movable bridges that swing, lift, and jackknife aside. The most striking is the railroad bridge just west of Andrews Avenue, a single span that folds up into the air when it is open. It sits low over the water and drops down many times a day to let the trains through, halting every boat on the river each time.
Stand on the Riverwalk and you will see it, a piece of moving machinery choreographing the endless argument between the trains that built this city and the boats that keep calling it the Venice of America.
