Summary

Camera location	38° 15′ 39.2″ N, 85° 46′ 09.74″ W	View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap	38.260889; -85.769372

Towboat "Jim D" upbound in Portland Canal, passing under lift span of Conrail (later L&I) Bridge. This boat did harbor work in the Louisville area.
In foreground are shipping containers at Kentucky Container Service

The lift span was built in 1918, replacing an earlier swing span at this location. (This was about the time that the canal was widened from 90 to 200 feet, the 600-foot lock was built and the pool above the dam was raised eight feet to 420 feet above sea level.) In the lowered position, vertical clearance above the river (at pool stage) is 39 feet; when raised, the clearance is 70 feet.

The span is 260 feet long (horizontal clearance for boats is 242 feet) and weighs about 2.6 million pounds. The weight of the span is supported by 2⅛-inch steel cables which pass over four sheaves at the tops of the towers (16 cables per sheave, 64 cables in all) and connect to two huge counterweights. Because the weight of the span is balanced by the counterweights, it can be raised and lowered by a relatively small electric motor inside the enclosure on top of the span.

The towers and machinery of the lift span were designed by [J.A.L.] Waddell and Son, Inc., and there is a plaque on the SW tower reading,
"Waddell Vertical Lift Bridge, Waddell and Son, 1917".
At left is the stone-and-brick building from which the bridge tender raises and lowers the lift span.
Guidewall at right looks fairly new, but I don't know when it was constructed.

Twin-screw towboat "Jim D" (doc. # 692729)
Length 56 feet - Width 22 feet - Twin Screw Cummins KTA19-M 850 hp
Built in 1985 by Marine Builders, Utica, Indiana
Originally operated by Marine Transportation, Utica, Indiana
Sold in 1993 to Neale Towing Co., Parkersburg, West Virginia, and renamed "Mister Charlie Neale"
Renamed "Austin Cole" in 1998

For more engineering details about this bridge, see
Engineering News-Record, Vol. 82, No. 21, pp. 1007-1011 (May 22, 1919)

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Ohio River mile 605
Louisville, Kentucky
Mar. 1988
file # 88c030
scanned from 35 mm Kodachrome slide

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