Any day when I can add a bridge to my collection is a good day.
A signature bridge — the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin qualifies — is an even better day.
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Photo Memory of the Week
Posted: 2024 Nov 29
Music of the Week
Poetry of the Week
Sun Dogs
- DiscoveriaWhen freezing winds have claimed the sky
suspending ice within the air,
a curious sight may greet the eye:
two lights beside the sun's bright eye.A sun dog, mock sun, phantom sun:
bright spots of light on either side
as if there isn't only one
but two stars by the centre one.You'll see them when the sun sits low
upon the land; when morning comes,
against the sunrise they may glow,
or fade into the sunset's glow.So marvel at the triple sun -
the radiant parhelion.Posted: 2024 Nov 29
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Stunning!
Tom
Tom – It is, isn’t it? My only regret was that I had no easy way to get early morning photos of it.
That’s an incredible bridge!
Great pictures
Xo
Kate
Kate – It is, isn’t it? They have many boring bridges, but this one makes up for them all.
It is a very nice bridge. Something along the lines of the bridge over the airport parkway, only nicer….
Did you get to see the Ha’penny bridge too?
Jim – Yes, it does remind me of our over-budget pedestrian flyover but, as you say, Dublin’s version is nicer. We did see the Ha’penny Bridge, but I didn’t get any photos. Perhaps it warrants another trip.
Great photos! Better than mine taken on a grey day. The designer was Calatrava, who has similar but differently inspired ones in Athens and Buenos Aires. I “collect” Calatrava bridges because of the nay-sayers in Calgary who decried the money spent on our own Calatrava, the Peace Bridge. My appreciation soars over time because he embarked on a new design theme for Calgary.
Judith – I haven’t put much attention (yet!) into collecting designers. Maybe the next project.
One closer to home is 2004, Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California, US
Barry – Thanks! And here’s Wiki on it – a bridge that is also a sundial. Excellent!
Isabel – it is certainly a work of art. Like most works of art I expect it cost at least a factor of 10 more than it would have cost to construct a more standard bridge. Judith proves me correct.
J.L. Whitman, P.Eng.
John – I hear you, and when spending public funds I suppose there’s some limit on the premium that’s reasonable to achieve art on top of the required functionality. Maybe we could crowd-source the variance, improving a city’s landscape, while controlling public spending.
I think any object properly engineered has a beauty intrinsic to its design. There should be a moral in that concept as well.
Laurna – OK, that’s another approach. We can learn enough about engineering to appreciate the design in what John refers to as a “more standard” bridge.