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The Lift Bridge on Main Street in the Village of Fairport has allegedly appeared in Ripley's Believe It or Not because of its unusual construction. The bridge is an irregular, ten-sided structure and crosses the canal at a 32-degree angle. No two angles in the bridge are the same, and no corners on the bridge are square. The bridge weighs 720 tons and is powered by a 40-horsepower electric motor. Clearance under the Fairport Lift Bridge is 6 feet when lowered and 15 feet when raised. Below are two historical photographs of the Fairport Lift Bridge shortly after it was built, and some photographs of the Fairport Lift Bridge taken in 2003 and 2004.
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| Lackawanna Bridge Company - Buffalo, N.Y. - 1914 -- The plaque that was originally placed upon the Fairport Lift Bridge when the bridge was constructed. The plaque was removed during painting in the early 1970s. In 2009, the plaques were located again -- one was reinstalled on the northeast corner of the Fairport Lift Bridge (in the original location), and the one pictured above was given to the Perinton Historical Society. On the right is the reverse side of the plaque. | |
Historical Photographs
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| Barge Canal, Contract No. 63 [Fairport Lift Bridge] -- from Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor of the State of New York for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1915 (Albany : J. B. Lyon Co, printers, 1916) -- left: facing p. 270; right: facing p. 272. | |
| Right: Douglas Packing Co., and Main Street Bridge, Fairport, N.Y. (10229 --
no publisher information) -- Postcard ; approximately 1925 ; reprinted with permission
from: Erie Canal, by Andrew Kitzmann and the Erie Canal Museum (Arcadia Publishing,
2009), p. 34. Note that in this picture, on the right side, West Avenue intersects with Main Street at the bridge, so that the southwest part of the bridge is truncated. After urban renewal changed this area, the west side of the bridge was extended to match the east side. |
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Recent Photographs | |
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| The Fairport Lift Bridge from the northeast (Bridge operator's tower to the left). |
The Fairport Lift Bridge from the southwest. |
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| The west side, in the raised position, as seen from the canal. | The east side, in the raised position, as seen from the canal. |
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| Fairport Lift Bridge from the southeast - Normal automobile traffic position (down). |
Fairport Lift Bridge from the southeast -- Bridge raised to let a boat through. |
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| Fairport Lift Bridge from the northwest. | The east side pedestrian walkway. |
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| The bridge from the south -- Going up. | The bridge from the south -- Fully raised . |
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| The bridge from the north -- Raised position. | |
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| The bridge from the west -- Raised position. | |
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| Detail of the southeast corner, with the bridge in the raised position. |
The bridge in the raised position -- from the underside Left: looking south ; Right: looking north. | |
Each end of the Fairport Lift Bridge has a stairway on the east side which allows pedestrians to cross the bridge when in the raised position. Originally, canal traffic was heavy, and road traffic was relatively light, so the bridge was left up and only lowered when road traffic required it. In time, automobile traffic increased and canal traffic decreased, so today the bridge is left down and raised when a boat requires it.
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| Fairport Lift Bridge stairways Left: South stair, looking north (bridge down). Right: North stair, looking southeast (bridge up). | |
http://www.eriecanal.org/Fairport.html