Photographs of the Bridges
Paddington Basin Bridges, London
Two of the more prominent examples of bridges as kinetic sculptures are the Rolling Bridge and Fan Bridge in the Paddington Basin in London.
On any website proclaiming to show the world’s wackiest bridges, you will see a picture of the Rolling Bridge in action. The bridge is tiny in scale, only about 25 feet long, but its operation is unique. To move and clear the waterway underneath, the bridge neatly curls up into an octagon, about ten feet in diameter, which sits on the sidewalk. This is achieved by the bridge deck consisting of eight separate sections connected to each other by hinges and shaped to fit together like a puzzle, being moved by hydraulic power. According to a sign on display in 2018, the bridge is opened at midday on Wednesdays and Fridays, and at 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays. However, although I returned at that time, a notice had been posted that the bridge was out of service, so I did not get photographs of it in action.
The Rolling Bridge was such a hit when it was constructed (perhaps “installed” is a better word for so small a bridge) in 2004, that Merchant Square installed a second kinetic sculpture bridge in 2014. This is the Fan Bridge, located just a few hundred feet further inland, at the end of the canal. The opening of Fan Bridge is similarly unique. At first glance, the bridge appears mundane, just a short, aluminum-colored steel-girder deck. However, the deck consists of five separate segments, side-by-side in a longitudinal manner, and each independently hinged at one end. On the opposite side of the hinge are fan-shaped counterweights, used to raise each of the five longitudinal sections. The mechanism is designed so that each of the five sections rises independently, one after another, as in the opening of a fan.
I wrote a full description of the Fan and Rolling Bridges in Chapter 5 of my book, Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times.
