Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

Ever get the feeling someone’s watching you? This construction worker at the 35W St. Anthony Bridge construction site takes a moment to check out the crowds watching him. I have a hard time typing when someone is watching me, I can’t imagine working with power tools in the wind 150 feet over the Mississippi River.

What a job! Look at all the cool gear these guys have. Just to the left of the red thing in the bottom left is a patch of gray — that’s the bridge, everything else scaffolding and gear.

Look at all this guy is wearing: a harness, knee pads, gobs of safety gear and a huge tool belt (check out the hammer). For those of us who earn their salt slingin’ bits, a real job like this is pretty impressive.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

The Saint Anthony Bridge is going to complete it’s span of the Mississippi River today. The scene of the infamous 35W Bridge Collapse, this amazing new ’smart’ bridge will be closing the span today. The photo above shows some of the other bridges crossing the Mississippi in downtown Minneapolis. Below is a wider view showing the two ends, hopefully the last time this view is possible.

I went down to the bridge site on Saturday with my neighbor Chris to take the tour. Every Saturday at 11:00am they give tours of the bridge site. It was very busy, but that wasn’t a problem, there were several people giving tours and they had portable PAs so you could hear them. It’s worth the trip, they meet in the parking lot behind Grandma’s in Seven Corners (just off the west bank side of Cedar Bridge).

For those of you from not around here, this Interstate 35W bridge is one block from another city street bridge called the Cedar Bridge, that’s where all us locals go to gawk at the construction.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

So how did I get those pictures of the 35W replacement bridge construction? Was I flying over the Mississippi River? Nope, there’s another bridge right next to it. The city was wise enough to create a pedestrian lane on that bridge to allow gawkers like me and my friend Matt, also known as Ravsitar, the release pixie of Tips From the Top Floor Photography Podcast.

Yes, that’s fellow Nikonian Matt taking a shot with a Nikon 70-300mm VR — looks good on him eh? Let’s all encourage this newly-minted professional engineer to reward himself with one of his own, or at least a lens I want that I can use when he’s got mine.

If you are interested in learning more about the bridge, I found a Minnesota DOT information sheet online.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Here’s what the St. Anthony Bridge segments look like before they install them. Note the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in the background (home of the Minnesota Twins & Vikings) behind the Valspar paint company.

How would you move something this big & heavy half a mile? Check it out…

Look closely, a segment is actually hanging from the Shuttle lift.
Speaking of looking closely…

Here’s a 500mm telephoto of the side of the segments, you can see how they interlock.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

He takes a moment to rest and enjoy the view. What’s he working on?

Behold the business end of the St. Anthony Bridge construction. What’s the view like? You tell me.

Is that the coolest job or what?

Technical note, remember the 500mm mirror lens I was playing with? The first two photos were taken with it’s replacement, the Tamron 200-500mm f5/6.3. It’s an ungodly monstrosity to work with, but I’m very happy with the images! I still have a guilty desire to go buy back the mirror lens though. In spite of the wacky bokeh, the images were really clear & the lens was light. There are some really cheap ones out there, maybe…

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

This angle includes the full span-so-far of the soon-to-be mighty St. Anthony Bridge. It’s difficult to capture the immensity of this project. Maybe I’ll get back down there and take some shots from below. The size of everything there is impressive, big cranes, trucks & parts.

Check back tomorrow to see my favorite photo of the bridge construction workers.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Matt and I went down to the St. Anthony Bridge construction site to take pictures on Sunday. It’s amazing to see them working on this monstrosity. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Matt heard that they took four hours off for Christmas and one and a half for New Years. I have some close-ups of the guys working on it taken with the 200-500mm Tamron that I will show you later in the week.