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.

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. 

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 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.

Bridges a Useful Way of Seeing

by Sandra J