| has gloss | eng: A roving bridge, changeline bridge or turnover bridge is a bridge over a canal constructed to allow a horse towing a boat to cross the canal when the towpath changes sides. This often involved unhitching the tow line, but on some canals they were constructed so that there was no need to do this by placing the two ramps on the same side of the bridge, which turned the horse through 360 degrees. On the Macclesfield Canal this was achieved by building spiral ramps and on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal by constructing roving bridges of iron in two cantilevered halves, leaving a slot in the middle for the tow rope. For cost reasons many ordinary Stratford bridges were also built in this way as they had no tow path. |
