Bridge 201 On Leeds Liverpool Canal – Bingley, UK - Moving Bridges on Waymarking.com

The canal is 127.25 miles long and flows from the inland woollen town of Leeds to the coastal sea port of Liverpool, crossing the Pennines along the way. Work on the canal started in 1770 and built in a number of sections and was finally completed in 1816.

The canal is no longer operational for commercial traffic but is popular with leisure boaters.

This steel counterweight swing bridge is also known as Bingley Three Rise Locks bridge and is only used by pedestrians and cyclists.

The Moveable Bridges of Britain website tells us “John Powell reports that the old timber bridge was replaced in about 1975 by a steel counterweighted swing bridge, but retaining the old cannon-ball pintle and timber decking.

Most of the swing bridges that I visited during this trip on 26th September 2007 were surfaced with asphalt over steel, but this bridge has a planked wooden deck. It was also noticeable that the swing pit area was covered by water, whereas most of the others were dry.”

When I was here on 1st June 2013 the wooden decking now had an asphalt sheet covering and the swing pit area was dry. A canal boat also came up through the locks and bridge so it was possible to capture the bridge being used.

The bridge is situated very close to the top lock of the three rise staircase lock. It thus also allows boat owners to access both sides of the canal as they travel up or down the locks. However there is also a footpath connected to both sides of the bridge connecting both sides of the town of Bingley.

The bridge is always locked in position across the canal and boat owners carry an anti-vandal key to unlock the bridge when they wish to pass along the canal. It is manually operated with a push arm used to open or close the bridge.

A sign next to the push arm has the following operating instructions.

Bridge 201,
Bingley 3 Rise
Swing Bridge

To open bridge
Use handcuff key to unlock anti-vandal
locking mechanism
Use push arm to fully open bridge

To close bridge
Use push arm to close bridge fully
Relock anti-vandal lock mechanism

Please ensure bridge
is not left unlocked

Bridge Type: Swing Bridge Span: 40 feet over a clear waterway width of 17 ft 6 inches. Pedestrian Traffic: yes Bicycle Traffic: yes Vehicular Traffic: no Railway Traffic: no Built: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the bridge and record the exact coordinates where the picture was taken.

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