What lies beneath

Have you ever discovered something interesting that has been hidden away from for a very long time, something that you didn’t even know existed?

Yesterday I was doing some web surfing, checking out coaster forums and sites, and stuff to do with bridges in anticipation of my end of this month vacation. One of my web stops was a site that posts updates about the Key Bridge project. One of the posters mentioned something that I didn’t think was right. So I decided to double check by doing a web search to try and find the correct information. This opened an unexpected can of worms, as random web queries sometimes do. I came across a site that I thought I had visited before, but this time it was upgraded with lots more information and pictures. This site has a vast catalog of all sorts of bridges in the US, in every state and organized by county. It includes everything from monsters like the Golden Gate Bridge all the way down to little single lane creek spanning country road bridges. Essentially it is an illustrated field guide to bridges. So I first looked to my own state and county, which has at least a few country road crossings and a few really old railroad bridges. To my surprise, a bridge that I cross at least two to three times a week was included in the list. I don’t know how many times I’ve traversed it, as I grew up only a few miles away. I never thought much about it, as most of the time I tend to look out over the body of water it spans, which is a reservoir. People fish and boat on the water, and there are hiking trails in the surrounding wooded area. Yet all one will ever see when driving over it is a typical concrete deck, with jersey walls topped by metal railing on the sides. I just figured it was a concrete beam or arch bridge, not unlike like so many freeway overpasses. Despite living nearby for many years, I’ve never walked on those trails or ever tried to see what was really beneath my wheels. I just assumed there was nothing much to see. But on that site, there was a photo as seen from somewhere along the water’s edge. Instead of a typical steel beam multi span bridge (as seen in typical freeway overpasses), there was actually a full under deck truss, with its web of steel girders. This finally cleared up the mystery as to what lies beneath that old familiar crossing. 

There is also another bridge I’ve crossed many times in my life, this one closer to Baltimore. Instead of the boring concrete piers and steel beams I had imagined, what is hidden below is a beautiful and rather elegant concrete arch bridge spanning the Patapsco River. This one is quite old, having been built in the 1930’s. The more plain looking reservoir bridge close to me was built in the early 1950’s. Both had obviously been there as long as I could recall. But because nothing out of the ordinary can be seen from a driver’s vantage point, I had no idea of what was hiding below me. The old saying of not judging a book by its cover sort of applies here. You won’t see what’s in the book unless you take it down off the shelf and open it. Being able to discover what the under structure of a bridge looks like can sometimes only be done by traveling on foot. Even the mighty New River Gorge Bridge is like this – you cannot appreciate it if you are driving on it. I think that perhaps this fall, when it cools off and the leaves begin to fall, I might just go and have a look beneath that seemingly plain looking bridge that I cross every week.