An Era Is About To Be Over
The decrepit 8th Street Bridge is about to be replaced. I'm going to miss it. Sure, on a safety scale of 0-100 it is rated at 2; the lanes are so narrow you really wonder if you and the approaching car will still have outside mirrors when you pass each other; a friend keeps her sun roof open in case it collapses under her.
But it’s time. The new bridge is almost complete and while it’s not vehicle-ready yet, you could walk across it with ease. Everything seems to be ready for the last stages of work. Due date is sometime in November and the builder says it’s on schedule. After it’s opened, maybe I won’t feel so nostalgic.
After all, the Carey Avenue Bridge was a pleasant bridge, even though it had holes in it and you could see river water. It’s still the Carey Avenue Bridge, by the way, even though it no longer connects with Carey Avenue and has been renamed “1st Battalion, 109th Field Artillery Pennsylvania Army National Guard Bridge.”
At least the Eighth Street Bridge still connects with 8th Street and is barely twenty feet south of the bridge Where Most People Pray.
I often wonder about bridges. They are made of concrete – you know, sand and cement stuff and maybe some rocks inside; maybe some rebar strengthening rods. All supplied and built by the lowest bidders. Occasionally I wonder what kind of job they did, how much care they put into constructing the bridge.
But it’s time. The new bridge is almost complete and while it’s not vehicle-ready yet, you could walk across it with ease. Everything seems to be ready for the last stages of work. Due date is sometime in November and the builder says it’s on schedule. After it’s opened, maybe I won’t feel so nostalgic.
After all, the Carey Avenue Bridge was a pleasant bridge, even though it had holes in it and you could see river water. It’s still the Carey Avenue Bridge, by the way, even though it no longer connects with Carey Avenue and has been renamed “1st Battalion, 109th Field Artillery Pennsylvania Army National Guard Bridge.”
At least the Eighth Street Bridge still connects with 8th Street and is barely twenty feet south of the bridge Where Most People Pray.
I often wonder about bridges. They are made of concrete – you know, sand and cement stuff and maybe some rocks inside; maybe some rebar strengthening rods. All supplied and built by the lowest bidders. Occasionally I wonder what kind of job they did, how much care they put into constructing the bridge.
posted by Tom Carten at 10:47 PM
1 Comments:
I really only discovered this bridge a year and a half ago, when I started using it to get to a comic book store. I've done two blog posts that featured it:
http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2010/02/taking-bridge.html
http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2010/03/paparazzi.html
A few months ago, in the hottest part of the summer, I was surprised by the appearance of a ramp of pavement at one end of the bridge, the sort that I saw being used to join two suddenly disconnected stretches of road in California when I visited a few months after a major earthqake. Turns out the bridge had abruptly shifted about four inches straight up on the southern shore side, thanks to the heat. I'm going to miss that bridge, but not TOO much.
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