The Cass Street Bridge is an iconic sight in downtown Tampa, traversing the Hillsborough River, and providing a crossing between the Performing Arts Center and the northern boundary of the University of Tampa baseball stadium and Tampa Preparatory School (better known as "Tampa Prep").
Cass Street is listed as one of the US's historic and notable bridges, though it is sadly in need of repair. The bridge is actually two crossings in one with the CSX railroad truss bridge having been built first in 1915, and then the adjacent vehicular bridge built in 1926, and rehabilitated in 1949.
I'm not a structural engineer, and so I always described the Cass Street Bridge as a drawbridge. But I have since learned that it is more appropriate to call this a bascule bridge because it is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or "leaf," throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. The Cass Street Bridge is most-correctly identified as a double leafed bascule bridge, but I think I'm gonna always refer to it as a drawbridge.
The name "bascule" comes from the French term for balance scale, which employs the same see-saw principle. Bascule bridges are the most common type of movable span because they open quickly and require relatively little energy to operate.
The Cass Street Bridge handles over 12,00 vehicles a day as of the last traffic report in 2010, and it is scheduled to be replaced if funding is ever made available. The bridge is rated as satisfactory on the USDOT safety scale, so there are no concerns with continuing to use this bridge on a daily basis.
See, you learn something every day! I always just thought it was a pretty cool bridge in downtown Tampa. read more