Black Bayou Bridge and Calcasieu Lock near Lake Charles, LA

Bridge: (Satellite)

Lock: (Satellite)

The bridge is a swinging pontoon bridge. A street view shows that it has a floating dock at both sides of the navigation channel. So the span must be a floating pontoon bridge.

Street View, Apr 2014

Given that the control tower is north of the floating span, this photo shows that the span swings into the northeast quadrant.

Capt. Hayes, Jan 2018

This satellite image shows the notch into which the span swings and the control arm that swings the span.

Satellite

Charles Reeser, May 2018

Street View, Apr 2014

I wonder how often the lock is used because this satellite image shows that the sector gates are open on both ends of the lock.

Satellite

I noticed the lock wasn't being used when I tried to figure out which direction the Intracoastal Waterway flows here to see if I should label the Grand Lake Swing Bridge as upstream or downstream from the Black Bayou Bridge. Even though the sector gates are open, we can tell that this other pontoon bridge is downstream from the Black Bayou Bridge.

This photo has been moved to the correct bridge.