James Myslinski

October 23, 2014

Engineering
Dr. Sweigart

For many years the drawbridge has served as a successful way to control ground traffic
while also allowing water traffic to pass under the bridge. When boats arrive at the bridge, a light
will bring the cars to stop, and the bridge will rise in order to let the vessels pass underneath.
Thus, the drawbridge has had a terrific impact on society, the environment, and traffic control in
urban areas that are interrupted by waterways such as the Chicago River in Chicago and the
Hudson River in New York. Drawbridges have had huge impacts, few of which are negative, on
the environment, society, and on the economy.
Drawbridges have given boats easy access across waterways where bridges would
normally obstruct there path, therefore they have had quite a positive impact on the environment.
Fast travel has led to less usage of gas and therefore less carbon dioxide emissions. Although this
is a very small impact on the environment, it is positive none the less. The drawbridge has also
made way for shorter boating routes, also limiting the negative emissions that enter the air and
the water. Drawbridges have helped to save submarine life form in and around the rivers that are
intersected by such drawbridges. Drawbridges, however, have had a few negative impacts on the
environment, but they fail to outweigh the good. Drawbridges have increased the water traffic
that enters inner cities, therefore aiding some of the pollution that already exists in urban areas.
Drawbridges have very little negative impacts other than those that occur do to any form of
bridge. Drawbridges, along with any moveable bridge, can emit carbon dioxide in to the
atmosphere if it is operated using a consumable energy such as gas. Most often, though,
drawbridges are operated using an electric system. Therefore drawbridges have had a positive
impact on environments in urban areas. This can be shown when looking at the most polluted
cities in America, where Chicago is much less polluted than New York City. Chicago has over
60 moveable bridges while New York has many more fixed bridges.

Drawbridges importance is mainly attributed to the impacts that it has on society

especially in terms of traffic and the ergonomic travel of the boats that travel under. Drawbridges
have increased peoples abilities to boat with ease in canals in and around the city area.
Drawbridges are also very safe for travel as the bridge has a traffic light at either end as well as a
gate that keeps drivers off the bridge while it is lifting. Cities such as Chicago, where
drawbridges are quite common, have a better flow of traffic compared to cities such as Los
Angeles and New York, where fixed bridges are more common than moveable ones. Also,
drawbridges have received an overall better rating of significance among citizens than fixed
bridges. Citizens are more pleased with the function as well as the aesthetics of a drawbridge
than that of fixed bridges.
A drawbridge typically costs more money, if it is spanning the same length, than a fixed
bridge in its construction and operation. The government requires funds to construct and operate
these bridges, as they require the use of electricity and other various forms of energy to operate
the lifting of the drawbridge. The drawbridge, though, has created shorter routes for commercial
vessels to sail through the canals around the city, therefore lowering the cost needed for gas on
these vessels. This in turn lowers the shipping fee for any company receiving goods from a
vessel that has traveled through this shorter route. Drawbridges, although requiring more
government funding than the average fixed bridge, lower travel cost for commercial and citizen
travel through the canals under such moveable bridges.