Crossings

[K.C.]

This is my favorite

[trinacriabob]

I love it.

Is that looking at Brooklyn or Staten Island?

Is that bridge one level or double-decked, I've forgotten?

[z28luvr01]

The Verrazano is a double-decker. I would think that we're looking at Staten Island, due to the apparent lack of city lights. Staten Island is a little more "suburbia" than you'd think given that it's one of the five boroughs of NYC...kind of like Nassau County on LI.

I do love that bridge. I got to drive over it the first time this year, though I've been a passenger over it a few times. On the five-boro bike tour that they run in May, the last leg goes over the Verrazano onto Staten Island, with no cars on it. I'd love to take part in that one year.

[K.C.]

This is another great one.

[Oracle of Delphi]

The relatively new Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge, with the old St Georges bridge in the background.

[Intrepidation]

Boston's Memorial Bridge

[Oracle of Delphi]

The Chesapeake Bay bridge which connects Maryland's Eastern Shore, with the rest of Maryland.

[bobo]

These are nice pictures. I really like cable-stayed bridges. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of them in California.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Cooper River Bridge, Charleston SC.

[trinacriabob]

Staten Island is a little more "suburbia" than you'd think given that it's one of the five boroughs of NYC...kind of like Nassau County on LI.

Thanks for the info. And yes, I know that Staten Island has a ridiculously low population to the tune of about 500,000 whereas all of the other boroughs have almost 2,000,000 people each. I've been told it's because it's hard to get to NYC by car from it and that it makes a better bedroom community for New Brunswick and that area.

[mustang84]

Mackinac Bridge in Michigan

Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Florida

Some classic iron, Manhattan Bridge, NY

Royal Gorge Bridge, Colorado

[K.C.]

The Cooper River Bridge is HUGE! Cable stayed and Suspension are my favorite! Here's one of the most underrated bridges in the world, I think.

[K.C.]

Here's my favorite cable stayed bridge that will never happen, unfortunately. This was a proposed I-70 Mississippi River bridge from Brooklyn, IL to St. Louis, MO. The tower leaned outwards and were proposed to be 562 feet tall. It would have been the largest cable stayed bridge in the world had the funding been approved for it.

[K.C.]

Boston's Memorial Bridge

The Zakim Bridge is amazing. I believe its the widest cable stayed bridge in the world. Great shot of it.

[Intrepidation]

The Zakim Bridge is amazing. I believe its the widest cable stayed bridge in the world. Great shot of it.

it has a long formal name! Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge

I've got a few more photos...I love this bridge...it's such a sleek and modern piece of architecture.

[Z-06]

Here is one in FL. Close to Fly's neck of the woods.

[trinacriabob]

Here's my favorite cable stayed bridge that will never happen, unfortunately. This was a proposed I-70 Mississippi River bridge from Brooklyn, IL to St. Louis, MO. The tower leaned outwards and were proposed to be 562 feet tall. It would have been the largest cable stayed bridge in the world had the funding been approved for it.

Just curious, what did you study before grad school? Engineering or something related?

[Z-06]

With the advance of Prestressed Concrete in foundation engineering and cast in place piles, cable Stressed Bridges are becoming expensive compared to regular girder over pile bridges.

The only thing in favor of Cable Stressed Bridges are their aesthetics. Engineers will rather have multiple locations of piles, and transfer smaller loads on each rather than having one huge span of Cable stayed bridge.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

The Cooper River Bridge is HUGE!

A few stats:

Towers are 575 feet high/ Bridge is 200 feet off of the high water mark/ The cable stayed span is 1546 feet long/ Includes a 2.7 mile bicycle & pedestrian lane with benches/ 8 lanes of traffic/ The rock islands at the foot of the main towers are 1 acre above water & 5 acres below water and are made of stone from Canada.

It replaced the 76 year old Grace bridge that only had two 10 foot wide lanes (It was pretty scary to cross, LOL) and was rated at a 5 ton weight limit. It also replaced the Pearman bridge, built in 1968 which had 3 lanes of traffic but no shoulder or median.

Official name is the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

Edited October 10, 2007 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[K.C.]

Just curious, what did you study before grad school? Engineering or something related?

Double major/double minor

B.S. in Civil Engineering and Entrepreneurship.

Minors in physics and business management.

[K.C.]

Going International, this is the Rio Antirio Bridge in Greece. This bridge was a real challenge due to the soil types that its built on. I think its beautiful. I'd like to visit it someday.

[z28luvr01]

Kicking it old school, with the Brooklyn Bridge:

Note - that's the Manhattan Bridge in the background.

[Robert Hall]

Lots of cool bridge postings...I love bridges.

Here is a neat one crossing the Ohio River back in my hometown of Steubenville, Ohio:

[K.C.]

I think this bridge is beautiful in its simplicity because it does not take away from the beautiful scenery that surrounds it. This is the O'Connell Bridge in Sitka, Alaska.

[Robert Hall]

There's a neat bridge in Astoria, Oregon...I drove under it but didn't get a chance to go over it a couple of years ago..will have to go back and drive over it...it was really high up (so ships could go under, I presume).

[K.C.]

Kicking it old school, with the Brooklyn Bridge:

Note - that's the Manhattan Bridge in the background.

I think NYC has some of the most beautiful bridges in the country, the Brooklyn being among them. I also like the Throgs Neck bridge and the GWB as well. Next time I do go to NYC, I want to get photographs of all of the bridges in the Tri-State area, especially my beloved VN bridge.

[Drew Dowdell]

Millau bridge, France

[trinacriabob]

Double major/double minor

B.S. in Civil Engineering and Entrepreneurship.

Minors in physics and business management.

Very cool...no wonder you're so multi-faceted.

[trinacriabob]

I also like the Throgs Neck bridge and the GWB as well. Next time I do go to NYC, I want to get photographs of all of the bridges in the Tri-State area, especially my beloved VN bridge.

Do you see much difference in the Throg's Neck and the Whitestone (they are visible from each other)? I like that neighborhood in Queens the Whitestone lands into, with all those all-brick gingerbread-cookie looking houses...quite a treat from beige stucco and mission tile roofs I grew up with out West. But, in a Yiddish accent, I say to myself "Vell, I can't live here, I vould be the token goyem on the block. Oy"

The GW is funny in that it had beautiful proportions and then looks both chunky because of the towers and spindly because they are not solids, but rather, carried out in braced lattice-type framework. From the boat ride around Manhattan, the GW is known as "the bridge that sings," presumably for it's beauty at the time it was fairly new.

I love pictures of the Verrazzano with great liners such as the QE2 and the QM2 going under it...borderline orgasmic!

[GMTruckGuy74]

I too love bridges and bridge design, but I have an immense fear over driving over many of the ones posted here. Thankfully I don't encounter many bridges where I drive; most are going over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

I cross this one most going into PA - the Burlington-Bristol Bridge:

It's a very tall and narrow two-lane bridge, but generally I have no problem crossing it. Unlike this one:

The Delaware Memorial Bridge going into Delaware. I *HATE* driving across this bridge. Last time I had to was May 19th when I went to the Wilmington Plant tour. I had the SKY's top down on the way home and crossing this bridge topless just intensified the fear I have of this bridge.

As for the Philly bridges, I generally can cross them without too much of a problem:

Walt Whitman:

Benjamin Franklin:

Tacony-Palmyra:

Betsy Ross:

[K.C.]

Millau bridge, France

I'm glad you put that up Oldmoboi. The Milau is really cool because it is the tallest cable stayed bridge in the world. I think the tallest pier is 987 feet if I am correct. Great pic of it too!

[K.C.]

Do you see much difference in the Throg's Neck and the Whitestone (they are visible from each other)? I like that neighborhood in Queens the Whitestone lands into, with all those all-brick gingerbread-cookie looking houses...quite a treat from beige stucco and mission tile roofs I grew up with out West. But, in a Yiddish accent, I say to myself "Vell, I can't live here, I vould be the token goyem on the block. Oy"

The GW is funny in that it had beautiful proportions and then looks both chunky because of the towers and spindly because they are not solids, but rather, carried out in braced lattice-type framework. From the boat ride around Manhattan, the GW is known as "the bridge that sings," presumably for it's beauty at the time it was fairly new.

I love pictures of the Verrazzano with great liners such as the QE2 and the QM2 going under it...borderline orgasmic!

I think the GW is the bridge is that sings because the wind howls when it goes through the open towers.

If you are interested, here is the link to the Cable Stayed Bridge Registry of North America. There is a link there to European cable stayed bridges as well, for people like PCS who are international.

North American Cable Stayed Bridge Registry

[K.C.]

This is the new eastern span of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. It is going to be the world's first asymmetrical self supporting suspension bridge. It will be opening in 2011 I believe. I think this will be a much better compliment to the beautiful suspension bridge of the western span.

[K.C.]

I like stone bridges myself. Here's one of the stone arch bridge in Minneapolis across from a neat milling museum:

Beautiful photograph there. I like stone bridges as well. The pic below is the Eads Bridge, which is the oldest bridge on the Mississippi River in St. Louis. It has the stone arches at its approaches and was the first to use steel in the arches. It opened in 1863 and has been structurally sound ever since.

Edit: This picture was painted when the river was at flood, because the stone arches are not usually in the water.

Edited October 11, 2007 by K.C.

[Drew Dowdell]

I too love bridges and bridge design, but I have an immense fear over driving over many of the ones posted here. Thankfully I don't encounter many bridges where I drive; most are going over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.

I cross this one most going into PA - the Burlington-Bristol Bridge:

The best part about this rather plain bridge is that there are signs pointing you towards it from over 45 miles away. In many cases, you'd have to pass up about a dozen opportunities to cross the river between the sign and the bridge. They probably spent as much on signage to promote the bridge as they did on actually building the damn thing.

[Drew Dowdell]

How about this shot I took in Köln?

If anyone wants the full size version of this shot, it's simply stunning.

[mustang84]

Quite possibly the most famous bridge in America

Lion's Gate, Vancouver...

...which always reminds me of Tacoma-Narrows due to the slender proportions

New Omaha pedestrian bridge, approved

[trinacriabob]

I think this will be a much better compliment to the beautiful suspension bridge of the western span.

+1

Amen, as the current double decked cantilevered monstrosity between Treasure/Yerba Buena Island and Oakland is an eyesore...and dangerous to boot.

I feel that the central tower kind of harkens to the Coit Tower, in a broadbrush kind of way. It will be nice to drive into SF from the east on such a nice new bridge. They will need FIVE lanes of vehicular traffic in each direction to mate seamlessly with the Bay Bridge's two decks of traffic.

Learn something new every day: the REAL reason why the GW sings! LOL.

[Oracle of Delphi]

This is a small bridge that I took pictures of last spring, it crosses the Brandywine River which is really a creek, or as we say in Delaware a crick.

I just love this little bridge for some reason.

[vonVeezelsnider]

Angus L. MacDonald Bridge, Halifax NS:

Centre Street Bridge, Calgary:

Edited October 11, 2007 by vonVeezelsnider

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

This is a small bridge that I took pictures of last spring, it crosses the Brandywine River which is really a creek, or as we say in Delaware a crick.

I just love this little bridge for some reason.

I love those bridges too! We have (or had) quite a few of them here in NC on the backroads, but now the state seems to have started a program to replace all or most of them.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Here is the famous 14th street bridge in Washington , D.C., this is the bridge that Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into on January 13, 1982. It was a very snowy morning when it crashed.

[Robert Hall]

Here's a pic of the bridge in Astoria, Or that I mentioned earlier..neat design. I've been across several interesting bridges in the Portland area the times I've been there..

[mustang84]

Kate Shelly High Bridge near Boone, IA...it's named after a little girl in 1881 who saved 200 passengers on the Atlantic Express by flagging the train down with her red shirt. The old railroad bridge had collapsed from heavy rain and took a smaller train with it, so she ran to the tracks from her house and flagged the train down before it crossed the bridge.

[XP715]

Not nearly as high profile as all of your big city bridges, the French King Bridge that brings Route 2 across the Connecticut River between the towns of Erving and Gill, Massachusetts has always been one of my favorites due to its extreme height and interesting construction.

The massive cast iron lamp posts with the eagles at the top are quite something if you consider that this bridge is literally out in the middle of nowhere; not even our big city bridges get details as nice as this.

[Z-06]

One of the few Railroad Draw Bridges.

South India

[K.C.]

How about this shot I took in Köln?

If anyone wants the full size version of this shot, it's simply stunning.

Wow! Beautiful shot! Thanks for puttin that up. I had never heard of this bridge before. Will have to read more about it.

[K.C.]

Unlike this one:

The Delaware Memorial Bridge going into Delaware. I *HATE* driving across this bridge. Last time I had to was May 19th when I went to the Wilmington Plant tour. I had the SKY's top down on the way home and crossing this bridge topless just intensified the fear I have of this bridge.

As for the Philly bridges, I generally can cross them without too much of a problem:

I can understand why you don't like crossing the Delaware Memorial. It is very narrow and narrow suspension bridges can sway more than wider ones.

[K.C.]

Quite possibly the most famous bridge in America

Lion's Gate, Vancouver...

...which always reminds me of Tacoma-Narrows due to the slender proportions

New Omaha pedestrian bridge, approved

Agree on the Golden Gate. It is the most famous bridge of any type in the world. It is so famous that all of the seismic strengthening being done could not alter the look of the bridge at all.

The Omaha pedestrian bridge is gorgeous! I am going to have to take a trip to Omaha just to walk across it. I love it! Do you know when it will be completed?

There is a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge that sits right next to the one that replaced old Gallopin Gerty that fell back in '38. The new span is on the left, and as you can see it in much wider.and taller than the old span. I am not a big fan of the new span because it doesn't match the old span. If there are two spans, I think they should match. I think that eventually they will replace the older span with one that matches the new span. Here's a pic of the new span next to the old span.

[K.C.]

Angus L. MacDonald Bridge, Halifax NS:

Centre Street Bridge, Calgary:

All of those pics of Calgary make me homesick. Thanks for sharing them. God that is such a beautiful city. I miss it.