Photo of the Week

This week continuing with the Miraflores Swing Bridge which we found out last week is slated to be demolished. These three photos from the John W. Sibert, Jr. collection. John was the Area Engineer when the early 1940's Third Lock project and construction of the Miraflores Swing Bridge were underway. These three photos are great as they show the progression of the bridge being constructed from 1941 till completion in 1942. The old bridge served well for over 70 years before becoming obsolete with the completion of the Cocoli Locks a couple of years ago. It is an interesting study of how they built this bridge across the Rio Grande mangrove and within the Miraflores Locks property. The building of the center pier noted as #4 below had to take into consideration the daily operation of the locks and the movement of locks locomotives up and down the lock center wall. I need to look through some documentation that I have from the Sibert collection and see if details are given about the construction of the bridge. I hope to have more next week.