An Abandoned Past: Crook Point Bascule Bridge left in the up position

Once of great use, many railroads have fallen into disrepair since the peak of rail service, including Crook Point Bascule Bridge. Ever since it was abandoned, Crook Point Bascule Bridge just remained in its same hanging position, but has gained popularity with travelers.

From Providence to East Providence, Rhode Island spans a bridge called Crook Point Bascule Bridge. The bridge seemingly awaits for centuries for authorities lower it down from its still hanging position.  The bascule bridge is commonly known as a  "drawbridge"and it has been left in its stagnant position since being abandoned in 1976.

According to Atlas Obscura, it was built in 1908 as part of the East Side Railroad Tunnel project and it serves as a way to connect the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad lines to Union Station. Decades ago, a lot of activity was going on in the bridge, both for train traffic above and river traffic below. But not until the mid-1970s that the train travel started to fall apart. To avoid the cost of tearing apart and dismantling the bridge, the management decided to pull the bridge up the draw, and left it for almost 40 years.

Since it was left there hanging, the bridge has been a target of graffiti, vandalism, as well as archaeological interest. The western way to the bridge is easy to get through an athletic field near the intersection of Gano and East George streets. A few wooden apparatus of the tracks were rotten or burnt. Different electrical cables were also found disconnected, but the rusty metal construction remains intact.

This mishmash of reasons draws various types of visitors to head to the tracks and even climb up the drawbridge, despite its highly dangerous conditions. In fact, students from the close by colleges have also got photographs and made documentaries, and studies featuring the abandoned bridge. An Archaelogy student from Brown University even produced one study that suggests that the bridge has functioned as a center of athletic initiation, punk counterculture gathering, and even suicide since 1976, as mentioned in Triposo.

The Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge is said to stretch to the Seekonk River. According to the research of a student named  James A. Doyle of Brown University it was apparently abandoned in the year 1976. An Urban explorer and photographer Ryan Ademan also took photographs of the structures of the bridge between 2007 and 2014, as claimed by The Sun Chronicle.

In the meantime, many residents of Providence and East Providence many not be exactly proud of their Stuck Up Bridge, however, they seemingly developed a some kind of sentimental attachment to it. In fact,  the Drawbridge made a particular kind of charisma to both the locals and the guests coming to see the abandoned bridge.