Thank you, Andy!
Here is the 'uppermost' section with an extra 1" piece of Styrofoam glued to the underside. That makes a 1" fall in the river right at the joint. It gives me a rough idea of what I could do at the seam. I don't know if the river will be that wide when done, but I gave myself room for a rocky bottom and banks. As far as lifting it out of position. I can always reach under the layout, and push them up, then grab them from above. I thought it would be neat to have something to lift them right out standing up straight. The way I have been going, I don't want to have to get under the layout when I am feeling my worst. 
On a side note, I worked on the upper lift up bridge to get a better alignment in the down position. I had settled for it coming to rest about 1/16" off in the pocket I made with wood blocks. I had been nudging it over with my hand to give proper track alignment. Now it falls right into place.
