Tag: Bridge

  • Shortest International Bridge

    I remember the story of the the alleged World’s Shortest International Bridge making the rounds of the Intertubes a few years ago. I ignored it intentionally, and not so much because of what I thought about its claim. Actually, I had no way to confirm or dispute it so it didn’t really matter to me.…

  • Clapper Bridges

    A simple form of bridge design features a series of stone slabs set atop rock pilings. It ranks maybe one rung up from stepping stones placed in the water or logs laid from bank-to-bank on the evolutionary scale of bridge design. Regardless, it certainly falls within the more primitive bridge construction types imaginable. In England,…

  • X to Nowhere

    There are many places that have been labeled a “[Name You Favorite Transportation Infrastructure] to Nowhere”. Sometimes they exist to reference an abandoned site. Other times they focus on an improvement that seemed to benefit an unusually small constituency. I’ll mention two rather well-known instances briefly today. Naturally I will ignore the political issues involved…

  • An Extreme Definition of “Southern”

    An acquaintance of mine and I once got into a friendly discussion about what should count as a “southern” state within the United States. I thought, well, the list should start at least with the eleven that formed the Confederate States of America at the onset of the Civil War. From there we could talk…

  • Smoots Revisited

    I’m still in Boston and I found my way over to the Harvard Bridge across the Charles River, connecting the Back Bay of Boston to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Nobody calls it a particularly remarkable bridge as far as those things go, but it does offer amazing views when the weather cooperates.…