This type of bridge is called a Bascule (after the French word for “balance”) and this is how to operate one, you know, if anyone is curious for some reason: https://twitter.com/frankcalabrese/status/1292790424407625728

In the tower you’re going to find a control panel. It probably won’t look like this but it’ll have the same shit on it. It looks complicated but most of these things don’t matter and nobody pays attention to.

You’ve got your uppy-downy levers...

Your gate controls...

Traffic signal control, which on this bridge is also the control power switch, but on some bridges that’s separate...

And your motor selector switch

Another one to watch out for would be a switch marked “Local” and “Remote”, you’d want that to be switched to “Local” in order to operate the bridge from that control panel

The first thing you would need to do is turn on power to the control panel and activate the traffic signals. This bridge turns on automatically when the traffic signals are activated.

Sometimes keys can get misplaced but key switches like this are almost always wafer locks that can be raked open in seconds in a pinch

Then you would have to lower the gates. Sometimes there’s a delay before the gates will run, and often they will be wired so the oncoming-side gates have to be down before the offgoing side can be lowered.

(again, not all panels will be the same, but there’s always a control for each gate with a “raise” and “lower” option)

Once all four gates are down, the center locks need to retract. Usually this is automatic, and an indicator will tell you when they’re out.

When the center locks are out you put the levers to “up” or “raise”

To lower, you do the opposite, obviously. This really isn’t rocket science

When the bridge gets close to being closed it may stop and give you a little *ding*, this is called Near Closed and is to make sure someone is paying attention so the bridge doesn’t slam or something

If this happens you’ll have to put the levers back to neutral, and look for a foot pedal on the ground, like one of these.

While depressing the pedal, put the control levers back in the down position. If there are multiple speeds you may need to put them in the slowest speed. The bridge should slowly close the rest of the way.

Then find the gate controls again and raise the traffic gates (you may need to wait for the centerlocks)

If something goes wrong you would hit one of these Emergency stops, just remember you’ll have to pull them out again to make the bridge move after. You might also need to turn the control panel off and on again after (the traffic signal keyswitch)

Some bridges might have touchscreens, but you’re looking for the same things: traffic signals, gates, raise/lower controls.

And now you know how to raise or lower a moveable bridge should the need ever arise