Old Swing Bridge Tower

This lovely old building stands on South Quay in Douglas opposite the new lifting bridge.

The original bridge and its operating system were built in 1895 by Sir W G Armstrong-Mitchell & Co Ltd, of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The bridge cost £6,590.00 weighed 450 tons and was 176 feet long and 24 feet wide. It had a footpath on one side only; the bridge was operated as a toll bridge for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic up to 2 tons weight until 1952. The two toll huts were on the north side where the machine towers for the present bridge are sited. The annual receipts for 1935 were £1,699.00. The lack of tourism reduced the return for 1941 to only £144.00.

Due to the deterioration of the bridge structure and its unsuitability for modern vehicular traffic loads, it was restricted to pedestrian use in 1959 and the bridge was finally replaced in 1979 by a steel box section design, constructed by Taylor Woodrow Ltd

The Tower was entered onto the Protected Buildings Register further to the Town and Country Planning Act 1931 - The Registered Buildings (General) Regulations 1982 on 14th September 1989.