Category Archives: Photos of Built Stuff

A favourite photo of infrastructure (buildings, bridges, roads) and of anything manufactured; from my collection.

18 August 2017 · 9:30 am

National Treasure #156: Dempster Highway

Sign marking southern start of Dempster Highway.

All photos courtesy of John L. Whitman

I’ve never driven the 736-km Dempster Highway, but I know someone who has.

The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. – Wikipedia

Much of the highway follows an old dog sled trail and the highway gets its name from Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector William John Duncan Dempster, who, as a young constable, frequently ran this dog sled trail from Dawson City to Fort McPherson NT. – Wikipedia

I’m familiar with highways built on top of logging roads, but a dog sled trail? All right, then. The Dempster goes back a ways, but the highway as we know it today officially opened on 18 August 1979, making it 38 years old today. Officially. It’s Canada’s only all-weather road that crosses the Arctic Circle and it’s gravel. On gravel. Continue reading →

Sharing is good . . .

Thousand Islands Bridge, Hill Island ON

In April, I tried and failed to do a photo shoot of this 80-year-old bridge. The weather wasn’t great, but the real problem was that neither the walkway nor the observation tower were open yet for the season.

In July, I tried and succeeded, challenged only by the spider webs that threatened to choke off the walkway. Continue reading →

Sharing is good . . .

Condominium, Edmonton

After chasing views of Walterdale Bridge from Saskatchewan Drive, which overlooks the river valley, I saw this condo tower and was inspired by the Friendly Giant.

Shot of condo tower taken right at base of building, looking up

Look up; look waaay up

Sharing is good . . .

2 Comments

Filed under Photos of Built Stuff

Tagged as Appreciating Deeply

01 August 2017 · 9:16 am

Walterdale Bridge #2, Edmonton

In September 2016 I was astounded to see the almost-complete new Walterdale Bridge. I had some fun getting photos of it from different vantage points, angles, and distances.

In Edmonton again a few weeks ago, I tromped around the edges of the still-under-construction site. This bridge was originally scheduled to open in fall 2015, then pushed back to September 2016, and is now scheduled – if we can use such a definite word in this case – for September 2017.

We’ll see.

But even under construction, it’s magnificent. And as the work progresses, it’s possible to get at new places to stand.