As a result of the Welland Canal Relocation Project in the early 1970s, the CASO line was rerouted through the Townline Tunnel, bypassing this bridge.

It is used only sporadically by Trillium Railway, and chain link fence gates have been installed at both ends of the bridge to keep trespassers off.

That bridge, built for interurbans (known as radials in Ontario) and light electric freight locomotives, was a lighter construction and only carried a single track.

As will be discussed later in this article, these standards were not set high enough and this fact would make the swing bridge a serious hazard to navigation decades down the road.

During the early years of its existence, prior to the opening of the fourth canal, navigation was only possible to the east side of the bridge.

This system made it physically impossible to have a signal indicating to trains that it was clear to proceed when the bridge was open.

discussion group [2] shows the timber fenders on the west side of the bridge crushed, obviously by an impact from a ship.

As part of the relocation project, this line, as well and the Canadian National Cayuga Subdivision, were rerouted through the new Townline Tunnel.

Bridge 15 ceased to be on the main line, and with the removal of shipping from the abandoned canal, it no longer had any reason to swing.

In the late 1980s, the line fell into disuse and was removed from a point just a couple of hundred meters west of Bridge 15.

Pictures from an historic bridge site [4] show the top plates of the main beams under the former west bound line to be almost completely rusted away.