St. Claude Avenue Bridge

The St. Claude Avenue Bridge is a steel bascule bridge spanning the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, built in 1919 to a design by the Strauss Bascule Bridge Company of Chicago. At its opening it was a rare hybrid structure, carrying both railroad tracks down the center of its lift span and automobile lanes on either side. The railroad use was eventually discontinued and the former track space converted to additional vehicle lanes. Today four lanes of traffic pass through the truss, with one lane in each direction running directly inside the steel framework — a quirk of its original hybrid design that remains visible to drivers crossing it.