Saturday was the last day of the season for the Minnesota Air National Guard Museum. They have an impressive collection of post-WWII planes. This one the F101B Voodoo.

From the MN Air Guard Website: The McDonnell “Voodoo” was a supersonic fighter designed to escort bombers and serve as a fighter bomber, an all-weather interceptor and a photoreconnaissance aircraft. It served during the Cuban Missile Crisis and during the Vietnam War. It was flown by the 179th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron in Duluth, MN from 1972 to 1976, before the unit converted to the RF-4C Phantom.

A long exposure hides the cars, but reveals their movements and intents. I chose this photo out of the set because of all of the turn signals on the right.

See the blue wavy sculpture on the left? It represents the curve the Mississippi makes as it passes through Minneapolis and over the St. Anthony Falls.

See the blue LED lights? That’s why the bridge is blue. Good to know eh? I think to appreciate this bridge, you need to get down under it and look up. The view of the city from the road is so impressive that the designers lowered the railings and minimized all structures on top. Many famous bridges flaunt their structure above the deck: the Golden Gate, the Brooklyn, the Sydney Harbour etc. But the St. Anthony Falls keeps her beauty out of site, deferring your eyes to the city she supports. How Minnesotan is that?

When you stand under this bridge, bathed in the cool blue light, you notice that she makes no sound as the traffic goes overhead, that there are no cables or decorative bits, just massive solidness all around. This bridge makes one clear statement: I will never fail you; never.

There’s a freshly paved path down here, under the bridges. You can pick it up at the Stone Arch Bridge. If you go just up just upstream of the Cedar Avenue Bridge and look, you will see this view. I’m looking forward to coming down here in the winter to see what the lights do to snow.

I love all the little hip-height lights around the base of the megaliths; they really give scale to the massiveness of them.

I have a lot more confidence in the St. Anthony Falls Bridge than I in old number 9340. Look at these massive monuments to modernism! True blue in every way. It’s very peaceful under here too, there’s barely any traffic noise and the bridge doesn’t make a sound. St. Anthony proudly carries the life-blood of the city and looks good doing it.

Can you believe that it’s been a whole year already? The new St. Anthony Bridge opened Sept 18th last year. Now a magical ribbon spans the mighty Mississippi, casting it’s cool blue light in contrast to all that surrounds it.

Here’s the truck I promised to show you. It was featured in the closeup on Tuesday. I just love contrasting colors & the contrast between the old truck and the greenery.

I found these colorful guys hiding in the corner, a splash of manufactured light was all it took to make them come to life; kind of… Thus concludes this week’s series: “close-ups from the pioneer village.”

I have no idea what this thing is really called, but I do know that an off-camera flash and an odd angle sure seem to work for it. This is in the machine shed up behind the drilling trucks. This week’s series: “close-ups from the pioneer village” continues…