Monday, November 28, 2016

The new Ironton-Russell Bridge, post 5 of many (probably 7)

You don't often get the opportunity to walk on an Ohio River bridge unencumbered by motor vehicle traffic, unless you're talking about the Big Four Bridge in Louisville or the Purple People Bridge at Cincinnati. Back in 1977 we got to do it on the Silver Memorial Bridge while it was closed a few months for repairs to some butt weld cracks (I still have to be careful to type that right), and again in 1985 the evening or two before Huntington's new East End Bridge opened. I have some slides from that evening in a box waiting to be scanned.

We got to do that last Wednesday with the new Ironton-Russell Bridge. While a lot of people took selfies on the bridge or of other people on the bridge, I tended to look up at the towers and the cables. It was starting to hurt my neck until a woman suggested I lie on the roadway and shoot upward while flat on my back. The pavement was still wet from the rain, and I was reluctant to do so because I might need help getting up. She said she would help me up if I needed it. So I lay there on wet concrete. This is one image I got.



I think it looks better rotated 90 degrees right or left ...



... but not so much upside down.


My preference is a narrow horizontal crop emphasizing the cables.


And that was part of my excitement for the day.

Up next: Is this part really an improvement?

UPDATE: I posted a link to this entry on my personal Facebook page. When I saw the thumbnail photo that Facebook edited down, I kind of liked it. It was something like this: