Defunct

From my June trip to the Boston area, a bridge turned the wrong way:

That’s the central swing span of the old Northern Avenue Bridge over Fort Point Channel, between downtown Boston and South Boston. It was completed in 1908, closed to vehicular traffic in 1997, and closed to pedestrians in 2014. As you can see from where I was standing, the new bridge that is effectively the replacement for this bridge is about a block away from it.

When the old bridge was closed, the swing span was left open, turned so that it is roughly parallel to the channel and making it useless for people trying to cross if they decide to go past the barriers that block its ends. So if it looks in the picture above like the old bridge intersects the new, it sort of does.

Here’s the east approach span, on the right:

And the west approach span, on the left:

The center portion of the deck, between the two center trusses, was reserved for railroad tracks; the two outer portions of the deck were the vehicular roadways and sidewalks. The main rail line crossed further south down the channel, at a massive rolling-lift bridge.

Other than the fact that I hate to see a nice truss go to waste, I’m not sure what else there is to say. The old bridge deteriorated and was replaced; no one has yet made a decisions about what to do with its remains so they sit there, looking weird.