Look for more bridge lifts

“Most commercial boats know their overdraw. It’s sailboats that don’t often know how much room they have above the mast. We’d rather they ask us to lift the bridge than not,” Port Facilities Manager John Mann said.

On Wednesday, a scheduled bridge lift for maintenance and training took a half hour but was exacerbated by a car with a dead battery stopped a third of the way across near the Washington side after the bridge was raised. With traffic backed up into town, it took Guzman Towing longer to get to the bridge, but quickly towed the 2017 Outback once it had access.

Mann and the rest of the crew waved and gave verbal thanks to motorists as they passed, a tradition he started a few years ago on the bridge lift maintenance excursions once traffic starts rolling again.

Port staffer Louis Ambers and Mann trained crew members Travis Gaston and Steve DePriest on how to run the controls and raised and lowered the lift span. The crew lubricated cables and other moving parts as part of routine maintenance.

“We have a really great crew and they have the bridge running as well as ever,” Mann said of the 93-year-old bridge he calls “Our Old Relic.”

Standing on the lift span as it climbs and descends a total of about 60 feet is an almost silent experience, if not for the wind and an occasional groan and grind. But a series of rollers, pads and buffers keep the bridge section running even and smooth.

Mann noted that after control house vandalism last year, the port had installed cameras that monitor the access (which is off-limits), the control house and the bridge deck itself.

Pedestrian and bicycle access are prohibited on the bridge.