Like
a flamingo, this bridge was as graceful as it was
odd-looking. In utility, it could have been conceived
during a crisis. But it was the solution to that crisis
that brought ingenuity to life. The Quintana swing
bridge connected tiny Quintana Island with mainland
Texas across the Intercoastal Canal. The island is
small, so it does not have lots room for long ramps
to get over the channel. The channel clearance must
be 73-feet in order to allow large vessels to pass.
If you can’t make the island move farther out to sea,
you can instead make the bridge move out of the way
of the ships. This was the chosen solution. When marine
traffic approaches, which is quite frequently, the
bridge deck simply floated down the channel a little
bit to get out of the way. Once the ship has passed,
a system of cables and pulleys drew the bridge deck
back to the ramps and the bridge was made whole again.
For years the people of Quintana maintained a love-hate
relationship with their bridge. Sea traffic outnumbered
land traffic, so cars sometimes had to wait 45 minutes
or more for a chance to cross the channel. That inconvenience
kept the island quiet, its population low, and its
lifestyle serene. But at the same time it caused problems
for emergency traffic. Ambulances, fire trucks, and
police cruisers had to yield to passing ships. Moreover,
a simple trip to the grocery store, already a bit
of a haul, could take an additional hour waiting to
get off and then back on the island. By the late 1990’s
the Texas Department of Transportation had come up
with a feasible plan to add a bridge to Quintana Island.
Backers said the bridge will be cheaper than the swing
bridge, estimated to cost $400,000.00 per year to
operate and maintain. But isolationists said it was
just a ploy by developers to get their hands on another
pristine part of the Texas coast, and money for the
$9,000,000.00 bridge would be better spent on other
projects like upgrading the area’s hurricane evacuation
road, currently only one lane wide. We have been told
that there are only three swing bridges in Texas and
a handful in North America. If you know where the
others are, please let us know.
