The app for independent voices
A email reply from Allen Miller:
I have never seen any photos of the bridge when it was operable. It was carried in the Northern Pacific employee timetables as an operable swing bridge for many years after it was taken out of service, as were several others. My guess is that, if it ever needed to be set up as an operating swing bridge again, it was already classified as such, therefore not requiring lengthy and costly permit process to re-designate it as an operating drawbridge.
If you want to see a similar bridge in action, go to You Tube and make a search for a video titled “Swing Bridge in Action” and you will see a short video of a railroad swing bridge closing and the easer bars dropping back into place. After a train crosses, there is some video* of the shaft turning under the bridge and the end locks being lifted, as the bridge is re-opened.