Pratt Low-Truss Swing Bridge.
Photos here are from about 2000 when the bridge was exposed. The bridge was later stabilized and restored by the County of Bergen, now open for pedestrian traffic.
The present Pratt-type Low Truss Swing Bridge, installed by the King Iron Bridge Co. of Cleveland using channel iron made by the Phoenix Iron Co. of Philadelphia, opened February 2, 1889. Joseph W. Stagg built the sandstone abutments. Closed to automobile traffic in 1956. Listed on NJ and National Registers as the oldest highway swing-bridge in State. (Listed on Registers by Kevin Wright and BCHS members Claire Tholl and Betty Schmeltz.)
Built on the site of a "New Bridge" with sliding draw was built here in 1744. Eye-witness Thomas Paine described this small bridge as "our first objective" in the American retreat from Fort Lee on November 20, 1776, memorializing the darkest hour in the hopes for American independence as the "times that try men's souls."
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