Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing, I do love the idea and the structure of bridges. The architecture that goes into play to create a bridge is amazing to me. I have been watching this bridge here being built over the last year on the Mississippi River.

One arch is finally complete, I just happened to be standing here when the tug boat was passing by and took a shot as it appeared to be in the center of the eye.

Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

Here in this photo below, they had one more piece to put into the arch. I took this photo about a month ago. Now they are building the second arch, but the process of building these on this massive river, is very interesting to watch, so many workers, engineers, tug boats and barges everywhere.

All the parts that make up a bridge are important. Without one bit, the other bits would either collapse, cease to be functional, or be structurally weakened. 

Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

For example, there are three main definitions of the structure of a bridge,

  • Support: The structure that props up a bridge.
  • Span: Span is defined by Wikipedia as the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure.
  • Foundation: The portion of a structure that transfers the weight of that structure into the ground
Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

Bridges as a Metaphor;

What this means is that it is the span that provides the functional purpose of the bridge, but without the necessary number of supports (positive input, truth), a point of weakness is reached through bending under an unevenly distributed load. None of this will matter if the foundation established is not sufficient to carry out the ‘heavy lifting’ needed.

Below, this is probably my favorite bridge, it is pretty plain looking and it appears to look as if it is a bridge to no where. But in reality, on the other side of this bridge is one of my favorite places to be.

That would be the ocean, waters upon waters. Water holds endless inspiration, magic and mystery, it holds endless inspiration to dream as far as the eye can see.

ocean water

Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

by Sandra J

44 Replies to “Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing”

    1. Thank you, I do love bridges. They are amazing when it comes to architecture. If people can think it, they usually can build it as well. 🙂 Have a wonderful day.

  1. The bridge with the eye and tugboat passing underneath is really stunning Sandra – you should contact the tugboat company and send them the picture – they might use it for their website, Facebook site. Or send it to the bridge authority that is building this bridge. The reflections are just amazing. I like the other picture of the incomplete bridge. Is that the Zilwaukee Bridge going to nowhere? My mom and I crossed over it years ago when we took a jaunt to see leaf colors. (They weren’t out yet unfortunately.) It does look like you are going into space!

    1. Thank you Linda, I never thought of that. I will look up the company and maybe the local newspaper. The bridge down south is the Dauphin Island Bridge, south of Alabama. There is a great campground on the other side that we have been to. I love it down there.

      1. You’re welcome Sandra – I would look into it – perhaps they would use it for a variety of reasons – boat, bridge, even their travel ads, like “Pure Michigan” for this state. OK, I was off by a long shot on the bridge! It did look like it was just headed into air!

        1. Yes, I will look that up. That bridge does make me nervous going over it, it really is going straight up, for the big boats to go under it. And not much for side rails, that is what makes me nervous going over it.

          1. I’d be nervous going over it too. When I worked in downtown Detroit I had to go across a drawbridge to get to work. I always took two buses ahead of when I actually needed to be at work during the time the freighters ran (April to late November). That was because, depending on who was in charge of putting the drawbridge up/down, that drawbridge might go up 10 minutes before the freighter arrived, or 30 minutes. It was frustrating sometimes and the bus driver had a back-up plan to avoid the bridge, but only if he saw it up from long enough away to make that detour. We’d have to go through a bunch of neighborhoods to bypass the bridge and I had no idea where we were. Anyway, recently, there was a guy who saw the bridge start going up and didn’t want to wait, so he took the car up the bridge as it was raising up and jumped across the space to the other side. On the other side, the car bounced down, had some damage and the police were waiting for him. 🙂

            1. I know – it sure was crazy Sandra! He was using whippets – are whippits a problem there? They are all over the ground here, no matter where you walk. They are the little silver canisters of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) that people buy to put into whipped cream dispensers. People had trouble finding cans of Reddi-Whip so they make their own whipped cream. Anyway, kids sniff it to get high and he was on whippits. In this video, you can see his car and where he jumped, but it’s not him jumping the bridge.
              https://youtu.be/FADZ4z0XJgU

            2. I agree with you Sandra – I saw those little silver canisters around on the ground for many years and didn’t know what they were for, then read a story.

  2. Wow! Amazing pictures. There is indeed a lot of science in building a bridge, but some of them are really beautiful, like artworks. Or they look like fine arts thanks to your talent for photography… 🙂

  3. Beautiful pictures of bridges! I especially like the one that takes you to one of your favorites places… which is? I have a fear of crossing bridges which never stops me from crossing one; although, I do get a cold shiver as I cross. But in my mind, I know, a bridge takes you to places you could otherwise not go. Thanks for your post!

    1. Actually Betty, there are some bridges that give me that same feeling. The ones that do not have high railings on the sides, my heart races faster when I go across those. And my favorite bridge I showed is one of those bridges, it goes straight up and no sides. I do get nervous on that one. It is called the Dauphin Island Bridge. With the gulf of Mexico on the other side.🙂

    1. Always Mr. Ohh. 🙂 I write what comes to mind when I see a photo. It is what I hear from my heart, there is only one that I am accountable to. And that pushes all the negative away for me. Have a wonderful day Mr. Ohh.🙂

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