Looking E from near foot of 16th St.
<p>Lift span of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Street_Bridge_(Ohio_River)" class="extiw" title="w:Fourteenth Street Bridge (Ohio River)">L&amp;I Bridge</a> is in lowered position.
[Another name for this bridge which remains constant despite changes in ownership is the Fourteenth Street Bridge.] 
Cyclist on Riverwalk, at left.
</p><p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical-lift_bridge" class="extiw" title="w:Vertical-lift bridge">lift span</a> was built in 1918, replacing an earlier <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_bridge" class="extiw" title="w:Swing bridge">swing span</a> 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.
The span is 260 feet long (horizontal clearance for boats is 242 feet) and weighs about 2.6 million pounds.
In the lowered position, vertical clearance above the river (at pool stage) is 39 feet; when raised, the clearance is 70 feet.
The weight of the span is supported by a total of 64 two and one-eighth inch steel cables which pass over sheaves at the tops of the towers 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 an enclosure on top of the span.
The towers and machinery of the lift span were designed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Low_Waddell" class="extiw" title="w:John Alexander Low Waddell">[J.A.L.] Waddell</a> and Son, Inc., and there is a plaque on the span reading, "Waddell Vertical Lift Bridge, Waddell and Son, 1917".
</p><p>See <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101061103881;view=1up;seq=1033">"Engineering News-Record", Vol. 82, No. 21, pp. 1007-1011 (May 22, 1919)</a>
and
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://heavymovablestructures.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/0092.pdf">"Dr. J. A. L. Waddell's Contributions to Vertical Lift Bridge Design" (a 2002 paper in PDF format)</a> from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://heavymovablestructures.org/">Heavy Movable Structures</a>, a not-for-profit technical organization.
</p><p><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_River" class="extiw" title="w:Ohio River">Ohio River</a> mile 605.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky" class="extiw" title="w:Louisville, Kentucky">Louisville, Kentucky</a>.
3-May-1999.
File # 99e008.
.
6x9 cm color negative.
scanned with Epson V500 flatbed scanner and Epson Scan software.
</p>
edited with Picture Window 4
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/70020260@N04">William Alden</a> from Louisville, Kentucky, USA
CC BY-SA 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_alden/8318985244/">99e008: Lift span of L&amp;I Bridge</a>