Category: bridges

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All Quiet on The Red Skyway

The holidays are past and normalcy has been reestablished. The skyways are quiet. Minneapolis has a second level that becomes the only means of getting around the city in the winter. The extensive skyway system is a fun place to explore; the styles way wildly, over by the government building they are scary modernist things resembling the set design from Kubrick's 2001. This is the skyway between the Target Center and Block E. It looks like a cantilevered bridge, but the cables are for show: you can see them sag in the summer.

4

Morning Frieght Run Over the Misssisssippi

Clattering and rattling over the old span, one of four freight trains in less than an hour passes over the mighty Mississippi river. This bridge also carries the Northstar commuter train into downtown Minneapolis.

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St. Anthony Falls Bridge Traffic

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.

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St. Anthony Bridge LED Detail

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.

1

St. Anthony Falls Bridge from Cedar

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.

2

35W Megalith Detail

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

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Megalith Pillars Below 35W

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.

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Lake of the Isles Bridge Repair

The last of the winter blues are on the run. This spring, the renovations around Lake of the Isles are almost complete. The shoreline fences are gone, the waterplants are doing well, the paths are all in place and they are currently cleaning and regrouting the bridges. Next on the schedule is the roads. They will be repaving the parkway which is in terrible shape. The dump trucks used to landscape the lake really beat up the road, so they waited to fix the roads after they were done,  so sense in damaging a new road.

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Stone Arch with fog

The amazing thing about this is that I took this photo less than fifteen minutes after yesterday's photo. I've never seen fog roll in so fast!

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Stone Arch Bridge with Sun

Will summer ever arrive? Will the ice eventually leave? Tune in and find out!