Monday, June 02, 2008

Building Bridges -- June 2008


RuneE is sponsoring this monthly challenge on the first Monday of every month. Building Bridges is subject to open interpretation.


My "building bridges"entry is sorta unusual this month. The bridge is the river itself. When tall ships come up the Columbia River, the I-5 bridge has a section that rises and allows the ships to go further east or west. I moved here in 1985 and this was the first time I ever saw the bridge raise and lower again! The passage of tall ships from one side of the I-5 bridge to the other is my BRIDGES BETWEEN this month.



Saw these two ships in the Columbia River a week ago Saturday. They were here for the Rose festival celebrated this week. Their sails were too tall to go under the bridge so it a part of it was lifted and then lowered after their passage under it.





The two ships have reached the other side of the bridge and it begins to go down again.











Traffic resumes on the bridge between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon.

28 comments:

FANCY said...

I think your idea for the bridge is great and the steal construction is on the first look a little bit rough ...but, the connection soft it up, I like it :)

My bridge is up want you to know ;-)

ArneA said...

A very nice presentation. Very slow motion video
According to the idea behind the Bridges fellowship

9na said...

Amazing!

Andrea said...

Interesting bridge.

Unknown said...

Nice bridge post and lovely photos!
I have never seen this construction before only bascule bridges.

Katney said...

Drawbridges are fascinating in their various mechanisms of accomplishing the task. They aren't fascinating when you get stuck waiting for one.

Daniel J Santos said...

very interesting and great bridge, excellent.

Lilli & Nevada said...

Oh wow Paulie i have never seen the bridge do that. Never been close to it when it was letting a ship come in
Great shots

dot said...

Enjoyed your shots of the bridge raising and lowering. I'm sure that was a sight to see!

imac said...

Great 2 posts here Bridges and Odd shot.

both mine are up too.

Anne said...

WHAT a strange bridge !!!

Anonymous said...

What a cool bridge... do they charge for raising and lowering? You got that airplane framed perfectly, too.

Rune Eide said...

That was extremely interesting. I have never seen a bridge of that kind. How simple - just lift the whole section! Around here we usually tilt two section in the middle, one at each end.

Anonymous said...

Pretty spectacular! I've seen similar but smaller bridges in Holland.

GundaM said...

And i say wow!!!

Texas Travelers said...

Great post. I have been over that bridge several times and never seen it up.
Thanks for sharing.

Our Bridge is Built.
Come visit,
Troy and Martha

FO - 2 said...

An impressive construction! :)
Great post!

Anonymous said...

That is neat. I've not see one before.
Mama Bear

Linda said...

Wow, that is some bridge. I'm thankful I don't have to cross it.

Marie said...

Fantastic! I have never seen a bridge like this before!

Very nice sky watch Friday too :)

Anne-Berit said...

Exellent post!

Malyss said...

It's the first time I see such a bridge.When I was younger, I lived near a river.When the boats could not go under the bridge THEY had to bend aerials, radars ..The bridge didn't move!
I like your river Columbia;the first time I saw it was in a movie with Arnold shwarznegger, (he was a cop but had to teach in a elementary school);the story took place in Astoria, Oregon, and I liked to see the tall boats on the river...

Kerri Farley said...

Wow...very neat! I love how you've shown the sequence.

On another note.....I remember you like Diane Mott Davidson and at one point you were wanting to read her "Dark Tort" novel. Have you read that yet?? I have the book and I would be happy to send it to you if you haven't read it yet.
You can email me at: kerrik312000@yahoo.com

Gerald (Ackworth born) said...

an excellent series of photographs affording us a nice insight.

Sharon said...

That is so cool! I've never seen anything like that!

Rune Eide said...

Me again - The carpentry was not mine. There will probably be a bit more of it on SWF and also later...

Dina said...

The whole section goes up and down! Wow, never seen that before.
Thanks for the lesson.

Jane said...

I've been over this bridge but never realised that it did that! Great pictures.