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The Belize Swing Bridge is a swing bridge located in downtown Belize City, Belize. It connects the north side of Belize City with the south side and spans Haulover Creek, a tributary of the Belize River.
A tourist destination and historical landmark of Belize, it is the oldest swing bridge in Central America and one of the few manually operated swing bridges in the world still in use. The Maritime Museum of Belize is located nearby.
Constructed in Liverpool, England, and brought to Belize City by a United States company in New Orleans, it was built to allow sailing fishing boats with tall masts to pass the bridge and continue up river to offer supplies and services to the city. The construction of the new bridge replaced several wooden bridges that had been built by locals during the mid-19th century by locals to cross the Haulover Creek.
Haulover Creek is actually an inlet for the Belize River but was so called because cattlemen had to pull their cattle across the creek with ropes ("hauling over the creek"). The bridge was constructed in 1922 and installation was finished in 1923. It was manually opened by four men cranking by hand. The bridge was swung twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening, to allow boat traffic through.
The bridge was damaged in the category 5 1931 hurricane that hit the city. It was said to have moved into the street. Again damaged by Hurricane Hattie in 1961 and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, repairs were made after Mitch and further restoration was done in the first decade of the 21st century. Talks were made about automating the bridge however locals have balked at this realizing it would take away a major tourist destination in the city. In 1987, an approved donation by China, resulted in the design and thereafter, fabrication of a modern replacement bridge for the old Belize City swing bridge location. It was shipped to Belize in 1989 but never arrived. It was returned to China because Belize established diplomatic relations with Taiwan that year at the time of the shipment.
The bridge requires a minimum of four men to crank it by hand until it is parallel with Haulover Creek. After traffic has passed, it is hand cranked again until it has been returned to its perpendicular position across the creek. Traffic is halted for well over an hour before the process is completed. Since 2007, the bridge is only manually opened by special request as traffic on Haulover Creek is not as heavy as before.
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The Belize City Swing Bridge was shown in the 1980 film, The Dogs of War , starring Christopher Walken. Scenes for the fictional African country of Zangaro were shot in Belize City, Belize. The bridge was positioned parallel to the creek and then manually swung back into position in the scene.
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Coordinates: 17°29′43″N88°11′13″W / 17.4954°N 88.1870°W
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Belize City is the largest city in Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 57,169 people in 16,162 households. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a distributary of the Belize River. The Belize River empties into the Caribbean Sea eight kilometres from Belize City on the Philip Goldson Highway on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and industrial hub. Cruise ships drop anchor outside the port and are tendered by local citizens. The city was almost entirely destroyed in October 1961 when Hurricane Hattie swept ashore. It was the capital of British Honduras until the government was moved to the new capital of Belmopan in 1970.
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Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion of the storm. It was the deadliest hurricane in Central American history, surpassing Hurricane Fifi–Orlene, which killed slightly fewer people there in 1974.
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Hurricane Keith was an Atlantic hurricane in October 2000 that caused extensive damage in Central America, especially in Mexico and Belize. It was the fifteenth tropical cyclone, eleventh named storm, and seventh hurricane of the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season. Keith developed as a tropical depression from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on September 28. The depression gradually strengthened, and became Tropical Storm Keith on the following day. As the storm tracked westward, it continued to intensify and was upgraded to a hurricane on September 30. Shortly thereafter, Keith began to rapidly deepen, and peaked as a Category 4 hurricane less than 24 hours later. Keith then began to meander erratically offshore of Belize, which significantly weakened the storm due to land interaction. By late on October 2, Keith made landfall in Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, Belize as a minimal hurricane. It quickly weakened to a tropical storm, before another landfall occurred near Belize City early on the following day. While moving inland over the Yucatán Peninsula, Keith weakened further, and was downgraded to a tropical depression before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico on October 4. Once in the Gulf of Mexico, Keith began to re-strengthen and was upgraded to a tropical storm later that day, and a hurricane on the following day. By late on October 5, Keith made its third and final landfall near Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico as a moderately strong Category 1 hurricane. The storm quickly weakened inland and dissipated as a tropical cyclone by 24 hours after landfall.
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Albert is an electoral constituency in the Belize District of Belize.
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The Illinois Central Missouri River Bridge, also known as the IC Bridge or the East Omaha Bridge, is a rail through truss double swing bridge across the Missouri River connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa, with Omaha, Nebraska. It is owned by the Canadian National Railway and is closed to all traffic. At 521 feet long, the second version of the bridge was the longest swing bridge in the world from when it was completed in 1903 through 1915. In 1975 it was regarded as the third longest swing bridge.
The Chamberlain Bridge is a bridge in Bridgetown, the capital and largest city of the nation of Barbados. In 1872, it was a swing bridge across the marine inlet channel of the inner basin of the Careenage at Carlisle Bay. The outmoded steel structure was dismantled and rebuilt in 2005–2006 as a lifting bridge with the state-of the-art modern technology of an all-composite single-leaf bascule design. This design is a counterweighted bridge span that pivots upward, permitting pleasure craft to pass through an inlet channel. The bridge was built using fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP), which is lighter, long lasting and non-corrosive.
Haulover Creek is a coastal stream that runs through the center of Belize City and discharges into the Caribbean Sea. It is known for being the inlet of the Belize River, and separating the northern and southern areas of Belize City. There are multiple bridges built across it such as the Swing Bridge (Belize), which is the oldest of its kind in Central America, and the Belcan Bridge, which is used as the finishing line for the annual La Ruta Maya river challenge.
Belize, formerly known as British Honduras, is a Caribbean country located on the northeastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the northwest by Mexico, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west by Guatemala. It has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of 408,487 (2019). Its mainland is about 290 km (180 mi) long and 110 km (68 mi) wide. It has the lowest population and population density in Central America.
