Laguna, New Mexico.

Regular readers of this humble blog know that I like to feature historic bridges. This colorful bridge spanning Interstate 40 near Laguna, New Mexico, has piqued my curiosity for several years as we passed underneath it on our way between North Dakota and Arizona each year. In 2021, I took the nearest exit to capture some photos. Then, I promptly lost them in my Lightroom catalog somewhere. I was looking for something else on my hard drive recently, and I came across these images. I guess it’s time for me to tell the story of this bridge.

When I post about historic bridges, I usually include construction and design details from research on the Internet. This bridge, which appears to have been completed around 2009, is not documented in any site about bridge architecture I found. Just by looking at it, the construction seems to be a modern concrete and steel design. But, it turns out, the story of the dedication of this memorial bridge is much more important than its architecture.

We took exit 104 toward New Mexico Highway 124 so I could take some photos and found ourselves on another historic road. This New Mexico highway is one of the remnants of U.S. Route 66. Only a few meters from the exit, a memorial caught my attention.

The bridge was dedicated to honor American servicemen who died during the 77-day Battle of Khe Sanh in the Vietnam War (1967-1968). This brutal battle resulted in the loss of over 2,000 U.S. lives.

My Internet search for information about the bridge provided the story. Harold Lockwood, a resident of New Mexico, played a key role in getting the bridge named after the battle. He advocated for the state to install and dedicate the bridge as a way to preserve the memory of those who fought and died at Khe Sanh.

In May 2009, a dedication ceremony was held at the bridge, and transportation officials, veterans’ organizations, and local officials were in attendance. This ceremony solidified the bridge’s purpose as a lasting tribute.

Further solidifying the bridge’s significance, the scenic historical marker specifically honors the ten New Mexico servicemen who lost their lives in the Battle of Khe Sanh.

The Khe Sanh Bridge serves not only as a memorial to those lost in the Vietnam War but also as a symbol of unity and remembrance for all veterans and their families. It represents the act of “bridging the gap” that connects veterans and their sacrifices to the present day. You can click on any of the images above to view them in 2K HD on my Flickr site. You can pinch-zoom the pictures on Flickr to make the marker text larger and more readable. My Flickr album is located here.

John Steiner

Council Bluffs, Iowa.

From our hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I could see a railroad bridge off in the distance. It wasn’t long and I could hear the unmistakable sound of a train. I was able to capture the freight train as it crossed the Missouri River into Omaha, Nebraska. There is a wealth of information on the history of this important bridge on Wikipedia. The bridge completed the final connection between the western and eastern parts of the transcontinental rail system.

The original bridge was completed in 1872, rebuilt twice, and since 1916 has carried traffic in its current configuration. The rail truss bridge stands 62 feet (19 m) above the river and uses piers built from the 1880 bridge. The total length of the bridge is 1,750 feet (533 m). There is much detail on the history of the three bridges built on this site on one of my favorite bridge reference sources at John Wicks’ site here.

About the photo: I used the 10X telephoto mode on my Samsung S23U as I was quite a distance from the bridge. Still, I needed two images to create this extra wide panorama. The resolution of the image as posted on my WordPress site makes it appear out of focus slightly. I recommend clicking on the image to view it on my Flickr site in 2K HD resolution.

Panoramic stitching was completed in Luminar Neo and the final image was tweaked with Enhanced AI. I added just a bit of Golden Hour to emphasize the color in the sky as sunset approached.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

Hannibal, Missouri.

So, this post is about a relatively new bridge named for a favorite son. But wait, there’s more… If you look closely, another bridge is behind the one in the foreground above. But first, the bridge in the foreground is a four-lane, Steel Truss Through Deck bridge with a total length of 4,491 feet (1,369 m). Completed in October 2000, the bridge is named after Mark Twain, who was born in Hannibal in 1835. Twain’s stories about the Mississippi River were inspired by his childhood in Hannibal, and the bridge provides a modern link to the river that played such an important role in his life.

The purpose of the bridge is to route traffic over the Mississippi River between Illinois and Missouri on I-72. The bridge is 62 feet (19 m) above the Mississippi. It replaced a bridge located a short distance downstream that carried traffic on U.S. Highway 36. That original bridge was demolished and traffic was redirected to the new bridge.

Just upstream of the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge is the Wabash Bridge. The bridge is only 20 feet (6 m) above the water. The majority of bridge sections are Steel Truss through Deck, but the westernmost section is moveable to allow water traffic to move up and downstream. Previously a swing span section, that section was replaced by a vertical lift section. That construction, completed in 1994, closed the single rail bridge for three days as workers removed the swing span and replaced it with a lift span relocated from a bridge over the Tennessee River in Alabama.

You can’t see it in the image above but immediately after reaching the western bank of the river, a sheer rockface required a tunnel be drilled through the high bluff. The current owner of the bridge is the Norfolk Southern Railway. For more details, check here.

An interesting additional detail about the bridge, as documented on Wikipedia here, involves a notable incident in 1982. During this time, a towboat experienced engine failure while navigating through robust river currents, while attempting to handle a convoy of 12 barges laden with grain. As a result, the vessel collided with one of the 250-foot (76 m) truss spans, leading to the span’s collapse into the river. This incident resulted in the entanglement of the tugboat and multiple barges, causing a disruption in river traffic for a period of nine hours. Furthermore, three of the barges managed to break loose from the entanglement and drifted downstream. Fortunately, none of those grain-filled barges struck the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge as they drifted downstream.

An interesting additional detail about the bridge, as documented on Wikipedia here, involves a notable incident in 1982. During this time, a towboat experienced engine failure while navigating through robust river currents, while attempting to handle a convoy of 12 barges laden with grain. As a result, the vessel collided with one of the 250-foot (76 m) truss spans, leading to the span’s collapse into the river. This incident resulted in the entanglement of the tugboat and multiple barges, causing a disruption in river traffic for a period of nine hours. Furthermore, three of the barges managed to break loose from the entanglement and drifted downstream. Fortunately, none of those grain-filled barges struck the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge as they drifted downstream.

For those who’d like to pixel-peep, these images can be viewed in 2K HD via my Flickr site here.

John Steiner

Officially known as the President Costa e Silva Bridge, the second-longest bridge in Latin America connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói and spans Guanabara Bay. When construction was completed in 1974, and until 1985, it was the world’s second-longest bridge, second only to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the United States.

The box girder design carries eight lanes of traffic on BR-101 and is 8.26 miles (13.29 km) long. At its highest point, its 236-foot (76 m) height allows most ships to pass through the bay.

About the photo: I captured the image on my Samsung S23U in two images from a deck on the Norwegian Star. I set the camera to its widest angle format and created a left and right image that I joined together in Adobe Lightroom. We weren’t that close to the bridge as we cruised away from Rio, but if we were closer, it would have been even harder to capture the entire length of the bridge. Click on the image above to pixel-peep in 2K HD via my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

Valley View, Ohio.

In our continuing quest to discover what our national parks have to offer, we headed south of Cleveland toward Cuyahoga National Park and found a visitor center near the highway we traveled. There were cars in the parking lot, but as it turned out, the Canal Exploration Center was closed. The park facilities have seasonal hours and we discovered that between Labor Day and the end of October, the center is only open on Saturdays and Sundays. Of course, the day of our visit was Thursday. Strike one!

We heard the unmistakeable sound of a train on a nearby track and a couple of other gentlemen in the parking lot gave us some information about the park and the nearby scenic railroad. We were excited to know more about the railroad and between the signage in front of the visitor center, comments from our two acquaintances, and an online search, we found that the train stops at several places along the route. We also learned that it was their last run of the day and that we missed its nearby stop. No matter as it wouldn’t have returned here for us to pick up our car, anyway. Strike two!

We discovered that the parking lot is used by hikers and bikers who want to hike the Towpath Trail, a popular scenic trail in the park that provides views of the Erie Canal and up-close views of the national park. We weren’t up to a long hike, but I did notice a pedestrian bridge still standing right next to a more modern roadway bridge where they both crossed the Cuyahoga River. The Towpath Trail parallels Canal Road along with parts of the original Erie Canal. In the opposite direction, the pedestrian bridge leads to the train station for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Even though we missed the train, we decided to take a short walk across the bridge to check it out.

I like to include details of the bridges I feature when I come upon them. Occasionally I come up empty with Internet searches. My most recent example is the old bridge at Betanos Spain. I couldn’t find any details at all. As it turns out, this bridge has the same lack of information. The Ohio Dept of Transportation features a collection of historic bridges, but this one, identified in Google Maps as the Canal Trail Bridge is not included. Wikipedia also has a fairly complete listing of bridges that cross the Cuyahoga River here. The bridge immediately to the right of the Canal Trail Bridge, the Hillside Bridge, is listed there with some detail, but though the Canal Trail Bridge is identified by name, there is no information about it beyond the name and GPS coordinates. Strike three!

About the photo: The weather on that day was cloudy with occasional rain showers. I decided to focus on the moody weather by tweaking the image to reflect the weather. Starting with Lightroom as usual for cropping and basic edits, I then sent it off to Luminar Neo for noise reduction, then I lowered the exposure of the image. I added a gradient fill in front of the bridge to darken the foreground even more. Then I added a radiant filter over the bridge itself and raised the exposure to draw the viewer’s eyes to the center of the subject. Finally, I used the HSL sliders to bring all of the colors individually to grayscale with each color’s saturation control. Then starting at the top, one at a time, I brought up the saturation of each color to see what colors are present in the image. I purposely left the ones that had the greatest effect, the red, orange, and green sliders, at a lower-than-normal saturation to accentuate the moodiness.

If you know any more about the specifics of this bridge, please feel free to let me know in the comments. To view the image in 2K HD, click on it to see it on my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Call me paparazzi. Yes, this image features a prolific motion picture background cast member. I’m not writing about anyone who might happen to be in any of the vehicles pictured in today’s photo. I’m talking about the Ben Franklin Bridge that connects Camden, New Jersey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The bridge has appeared in background shots and cameo roles in several motion pictures set in Philadelphia. This view gives us a glimpse of the City of Brotherly Love behind the cars and underneath the arches on the left.

The span has appeared in several films, adding to its cinematic history and cultural significance. Here are a few notable movies that feature the Ben Franklin Bridge:

1. “Witness” (1985): This thriller directed by Peter Weir stars Harrison Ford as a detective investigating a murder in an Amish community. The Ben Franklin Bridge is featured during a pivotal scene where Ford’s character confronts the culprits on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway.
2. “National Treasure” (2004): In this adventure film starring Nicolas Cage, the Ben Franklin Bridge appears as one of the landmarks visited by the characters in their quest to find hidden treasure. It is shown in several scenes, including a car chase across the bridge.
3. “Limitless” (2011): This science fiction thriller stars Bradley Cooper as a struggling writer who gains superhuman abilities through a mysterious pill. Cooper’s character is shown running across the Ben Franklin Bridge as part of a pivotal scene.
4. “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012): Directed by David O. Russell, this romantic comedy-drama features the Ben Franklin Bridge in several scenes. The bridge serves as a backdrop to various moments in the story, including a climactic scene where the characters played by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence meet near the bridge.
5. “Dead Man Down” (2013): Starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, this action thriller includes the Ben Franklin Bridge in its setting. The bridge is featured in a car chase sequence, highlighting its architecture.

One notable movie that was shot in Philadelphia but didn’t include the bridge as a background actor is “Rocky” (1976), however, the bridge was featured in “Rocky II” (1979) in a montage showcasing various locations in Philadelphia. Rocky II was the only movie in the series to include a shot of one of Philadelphia’s most recognizable landmarks.

The bridge is supported by its two main towers, one located in Philadelphia and the other in Camden, New Jersey. These towers are constructed using steel and rise to a height of 382 feet (116 meters) above the typical high water level. The main span, which is the distance between the two towers, measures approximately 1,750 feet (533 meters). Its total length, including approaches on both sides, is around 9,573 feet (2,918 meters).

The final design provides six lanes of traffic, two tracks for subway/elevated trains, two tracks for streetcar/trolley operation, and two walkways for pedestrians. The pedestrian lanes are used by bicycle riders, walkers, and joggers and are visible in the photo above the roadways on either side. The train tracks run on both sides of the roadways underneath the pedestrian walkways. More facts about the bridge and its construction can be found here. As Janet noted in the comments, there is a toll when coming from the New Jersey side. No toll coming in the other direction.

About the photo: Normally on our fall trips, Lynn and I ride in the rear seats of my niece and her husband’s SUV. I usually capture images out of the left-side rear window. For whatever reason, I was riding shotgun position as we approached the bridge. Cleaning the windshield at fuel stops is my usual duty and it was freshly cleaned when we filled the SUV up with fuel that morning. The light and angles were right to minimize reflections and I got a nice panoramic view of the bridge as we crossed. Using Adobe Lightroom, I cropped out the hood at the bottom of the shot, most of the car on the right, and adjusted for a slight tilt. I then sent it off to Luminar Neo for final tweaks. I added just a bit of structure and used the Enhance AI tool to increase the contrast. You can pixel-peep at the image in 2K HD on my Flickr site by clicking on the image above.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

This week, Anne hosts a challenge that is based on architecture. Her title indicates a wide variety of potential subjects for inclusion. She writes, “My challenge for you, this week, is to find your own fascinating structures that capture your attention, tell a story, or are just beautiful.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

For my challenge response, I feature a specific architectural structure, the bridge. In architecture, a bridge is a structure that spans a physical obstacle such as a river, valley, road, or railway line, providing a passage over it. It is designed to support the weight of people and transport vehicles, and allows for crossing from one side of the obstacle to the other.

My opening image features the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge. Its purpose is to carry traffic across the chasm instead of taking a longer route that requires vehicles to cross over the top of Hoover Dam. At 1,900 feet (579 m) long, with a 1060-foot-long (323 m) main span, the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge opened to traffic as the highest and longest single-span concrete arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

About 60 miles (97 km) west of my home in Fargo, North Dakota, lies the spectacular Highline Bridge, one of the longest and highest single-track railroad bridges in the United States. The drone image panorama features three images stitched together to capture the entire 3,860-foot (1,177 m) long and 162-foot (49 m) span.

The Highline Bridge has been serving as a regular train route since May 1908 and remains operational to this day. The bridge’s girder, deck, and plate construction rises above the Sheyenne River Valley at Valley City, North Dakota.

These two bridges connect the city of Winnipeg’s St. Boniface neighborhood, with The Forks area in downtown Winnipeg. The automotive bridge is curved and consists of an 820-foot (250 m) long five-span, precast concrete girder structure.

The pedestrian bridge’s design features a cable-stayed deck supported by a single pylon that rises 187 feet (57 m) above the river. The building underneath the spire opened as a restaurant, but Google Maps indicates it is now being used as an office building.

In western North Dakota, the Fairview Lift Bridge spanned the Yellowstone River in 1917. The bridge’s design demonstrated the clout of the steamship companies in the upper Midwest. Engineers were required to install a lift section to allow steamboats’ unimpeded transit. It took so long to complete the bridge, steamboats were no longer navigating the river and the lift section was never used.

Sometimes mistaken for the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894. The term “bascule” references a balanced design similar to a see-saw. With the help of counterweights, the roadway sections between the two towers are lifted to allow tall ships to pass underneath.

In May 1980, the eruption of Mount Saint Helens caused a lasting impact on the landscape. The volcanic explosion resulted in the destruction of the existing highway leading to the volcano. To replace the original highway, a new road called State Route 504, also known as the Spirit Lake Highway, was constructed.

This bridge, towering over a deep valley, is the tallest among the 14 bridges on Highway 504. The valley beneath the bridge reaches a depth of approximately 370 feet (113 m) and crosses Hoffstadt Creek as it winds its way toward the Toutle River. The span is the second tallest bridge in the area and claims the title of being the third tallest bridge in the northwestern United States.

During our journey on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad out of Skagway, Alaska, we encountered a historic bridge. As we crossed the Skagway River on a modern bridge, the steel cantilever bridge above came into view, standing tall even though it has been unused since 1969.

As we traveled over the newer bridge, capturing the old trestle in two images, I had already decided that I might stylize the photographs to give them an aged appearance, I chose the first image in black-and-white and the second in high-key color.

In the ghost town of Sims, North Dakota, this bridge sits unused just like the town where it now sits. For 104 years, the bridge was a way to cross Sims Creek just north of Altamont, North Dakota. The Warren Pony Truss design was not conducive to modernization and because of its truss construction, it couldn’t be widened. In July 2020, the bridge was moved near the only building in Sims that is still in weekly use, the Sims Scandinavian Lutheran Church. You can read the story of the old Sims Creek Bridge here.

I am particularly fond of bridges, so I hope Anne forgives me for focusing on but one style. You can pixel-peep these images in 2K HD via my Flickr album here.

Next week it’s Donna’s turn to “bug” us… er, ah, that’s not a pejorative (sorry, Donna), her theme relates to bugs and other small things. If you’d like to join in but aren’t sure how to get started, details are here.

John Steiner

Rome, Italy.

The Tiber River partially separates the city of Rome from the city-nation, Vatican City. From the wall that rings this edge of Vatican City, you can see one of the bridges that allow travel between the two cities. The three-arch bridge in the photo was opened in 1911. Named after the King of Italy who reigned from 1861 to 1878, the bridge features four towers, each carrying bronze Winged Victory sculptures. The span is 350 feet (108 m) in length.

About the photo: Captured with my Samsung S20U, I was shooting directly into the sun which was just off the image on the top. When I first looked at the photo, I was afraid that the huge solar flair light leak would make the photo unusable. Luminar Neo came to the rescue. I opened the file directly in Neo and immediately went to work on the flare. If I couldn’t get that flare cleaned up, there wasn’t much hope for the image without a major crop.

I wasn’t expecting success with the erase tool and thought I might end up using Neo’s sky replacement feature. I decided to try the Erase tool anyway as it’s pretty efficient. The first couple of tries left duplications of clouds due to the cloning that the tool uses. A couple of undo and retries and some erasure of duplicate cloud effects cleaned up the sky pretty nicely.

I then went to Neo’s Develop module and raised the shadows to bring out more detail in the backlit bridge. I didn’t raise the control very much as it made the bridge “look funny”. Raising the shadows also created another issue. That tower directly under the solar flare didn’t look right as it was a bit hazy and the exposure didn’t match. I used a radial mask to put an oval around that tower and tweaked the exposure and dehaze inside the mask. The goal was to match the look of the tower on the right for exposure. All in all, I think the extra work was worth the processing time. You can view both of these images in 2K HD on my Flickr site. Just click on an image to check it out.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

Mackinaw City, Michigan.

Nicknamed The Mighty Mac, the bridge connecting Mackinaw City to St. Ignace Michigan over the Straits of Mackinac is the fifth longest suspension bridge in the world. According to the Mackinac Bridge Authority website, the bridge is also the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere.

A wealth of bridge information is on the website. Construction details and a complete history of the bridge can be found here. The bridge opened to traffic in 1957 and is about 5 miles long (26,372 ft or 8,038 m). The suspension bridge section, including the anchors, is 8,614 ft (2,625 m). For those who are really detail-conscious, check that link. You’ll find other facts there including the exact number of rivets and bolts used in construction. Those numbers are almost 5 million, and over one million, respectively.

Near the southern end of the bridge at Mackinaw City, a museum featuring the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse (part of Fort Michilimackinac State Park) is a worthy visit. The lighthouse museum closes each winter but it will reopen on May 11, 2023. I featured a couple of views of this lighthouse in a photo challenge here.

About the photo: This panoramic image was created by joining two photos from my Samsung S20U cellphone via Adobe Lightroom. After basic edits there, the image was exported to Luminar Neo for further processing. To view the photo in 2K HD via my Flickr site, click on the image.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

In Yellowstone Park, there’s a different Golden Gate Bridge from that famous bridge in San Francisco. This bridge spans Golden Gate Canyon along Highway 89 actually began as a wooden plank viaduct, which was truly an engineering marvel when it was originally constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1885, The bridge was reconstructed four times, the last build completed in 1977.

The bridges were designed to span the canyon as the highway traversed the park. After earthquake damage, the third iteration of the bridge was replaced by a concrete deck on girders supported by concrete piers.

A great blog post featuring the history of the viaduct can be found here. Probably the most interesting note in this story is the construction and premature demise of a tunnel that never got to see public use.

A placard near the pull-off where the opening photo was taken features a short history of the bridge and its predecessors. Click on either of the images above to view them close-up in a gallery on my Flickr site.

John Steiner