Swing bridge in the context of "Willis Avenue Bridge"

A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word drawbridge commonly refers to all types of moveable bridges, such as bascule bridges, vertical-lift bridges and swing bridges, but this article concerns the narrower historical definition where the bridge is used in a defensive structure.

As used in castles or defensive structures, drawbridges provide access across defensive structures when lowered, but can quickly be raised from within to deny entry to an enemy force.

A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck.

The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swing-span bridges. Generally speaking, they cost less to build for longer moveable spans. The counterweights in a vertical lift are only required to be equal to the weight of the deck, whereas bascule bridge counterweights must weigh several times as much as the span being lifted. As a result, heavier materials can be used in the deck, and so this type of bridge is especially suited for heavy railroad use. The biggest disadvantage to the vertical-lift bridge (in comparison with many other designs) is the height restriction for vessels passing under it, due to the deck remaining suspended above the passageway.

The Barton Swing Aqueduct is a moveable navigable aqueduct in Barton upon Irwell, Greater Manchester, England. It carries the Bridgewater Canal across the Manchester Ship Canal. The swinging action allows large vessels using the ship canal to pass through and smaller craft, both narrowboats and broad-beam barges, to cross over the top. The aqueduct, the first and only swing aqueduct in the world, is a Grade II* listed building, and considered a major feat of Victorian civil engineering. Designed by Sir Edward Leader Williams and built by Andrew Handyside and Company of Derby, the swing bridge opened in 1894 and remains in regular use.

The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El, was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened in July 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cable-powered elevated railway from Battery Place, at the south end of Manhattan Island, northward up Greenwich Street to Cortlandt Street. By 1879 the line was extended to the Harlem River at 155th Street. It was electrified and taken over by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1903.

The main line ceased operation in June 1940, after it was replaced by the IND Eighth Avenue Line which had opened in 1932. The last section in use, over the Harlem River, was known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle. It closed in August 1958. This portion used a now-removed swing bridge called the Putnam Bridge, and went through a still-extant tunnel with two partially underground stations.

The Broadway Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge across the Harlem River Ship Canal in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It connects the neighborhoods of Inwood on Manhattan Island and Marble Hill on the mainland. The bridge consists of two decks. The lower deck carries Broadway, which is designated as U.S. Route 9 at this location. The upper deck carries the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, serving the 1 train.

The site was previously occupied by two successive swing bridges. The first, known as the Harlem Ship Canal Bridge, was built between 1893 and 1895 to cross the canal, which had been constructed to bypass a meandering alignment of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. By the first decade of the 20th century, the construction of the city's first subway line had made the original bridge obsolete, and a double-decker span called the 225th Street Bridge was built to accommodate the subway line above highway traffic. Between 1905 and 1906, the second bridge was installed, and the first bridge was relocated southward on the Harlem River, becoming the University Heights Bridge.

The Macombs Dam Bridge (/məˈkuːmz/ mə-KOOMZ; also Macomb's Dam Bridge) is a swing bridge across the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The bridge is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT).

The Macombs Dam Bridge connects the intersection of 155th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue), located in Manhattan, with the intersection of Jerome Avenue and 161st Street, located near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The 155th Street Viaduct, one of the bridge's approaches in Manhattan, carries traffic on 155th Street from Seventh Avenue to the intersection with Edgecombe Avenue and St. Nicholas Place. The bridge is 2,540 feet (770 m) long in total, with four vehicular lanes and two sidewalks.