Railroad Swing Bridges in U.S. - Trains Magazine

The railroad B&B folks are of course going to say,"Way too many !", even though they represent a source of almost continuously guaranteed income.   

In the absence of any better knowledge or documentation, I would hazard a guess at the 200 to 300 range, or about 4 to 6 per state, on average.  There must be a database of some kind which lists them and their principal characteristics, but I don't know of any other than general bridge websites for the Pittsburgh and Kentucky areas, and perhaps 1 national website ("Bridgehunters" - see:  ). 

Doing a quick search there for "Design: MOVABLE - Swing" and "Owner: PRIVATE - Railroad Company" yielded 145 results, quite a few of which I recognized.  But those results do not appear to include the little manually-operated swing bridge in Lewes, Delaware, over the Intracoastal Waterway/ Lewes - Rehoboth Beach Canal there, so that website's comprehensiveness and accuracy may be open to some speculation. 

- Paul North.