Oshkosh Drawbridge Bascule taking shape

the area looks like this from the kite camera

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Tall bridge

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It is a Bascule rolling lift bridge. Look at those rows of black gear teeth on the curves.

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Big counter weight boxes. . . . . . . . Will they fill them with sand? My guess is the two beams between the boxes will be removed afterwards, and the counterweights will be able to pass over the approach span, so the main span might roll up to maybe ? 80 ? degrees to allow a wide channel for the sailboats.

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The workers look small in comparison to all that steel. They are busy even on a Saturday. Notice the red gear. And the pinion to raise the span might be put on the end of the shaft?

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There's a pine tree on the top.

My question about the tree was answered by Kim Kafura.

That's Topping Out, from a ceremony held when the last beam is placed at the top of a building.

See Widipedia for more interesting information about that.

By the old bridge, there's a set of new stairs and some new brown steel. There's a horizontal orange rack of gear teeth just beyond the top handrail. . . . . . . . And maybe a green plastic bumper stop on the upper right?

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I point out the stairs and frame in this picture. I suppose the existing swing span only turns counter-clockwise to open now. And maybe the day the center span is removed, another new steel framework will go up on this side?

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. . . . . . . I don't know when they will float out the old span and put in the new.

. . . . . links to previous webpages:

. . . April 2013 view of the work.

This wasn't put on my posted page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/danbraun/sets/72157627866562606/ 1899 Swing Bridge Project by 'Wide Cab'

. . . . . . . . 1899 Oshkosh Bridge and Oshkosh yard by Dan, lots of pictures and the story of the construction over the last 2 years. And it may be hard to use BACK to my page from there.

. . . . . . . . Flickr picture of Bridge by Missing Link, check out the series near this night scene of the original bridge.

. . . . .. . my 2009 aerial view of the original bridge with all 3 truss spans. And my index link on that page will get you to one of my very old indexes. Use BACK to return to here.

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Link back to my index page, Bruce's RailRoad Pictures

my best index page is on the TrainWeb site, as of January 2011.