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

For this week’s challenge, Tina reminds us of the beauty and uniqueness of architectural design that we might find anywhere on our travels. She writes, “So our challenge this week is to share your images of Interesting Architecture – whether in your back yard or anywhere else around the world.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

In my opening photo, one taken in September, we visited Alamo Square, a small park in the heart of San Fransisco. If you look eastward from the park, you’ll see the Painted Ladies, a collection of Victorian houses that have been featured in many a movie that was filmed in San Fransisco. I was surprised when I looked up the location in Google Maps to find out the street in front of the houses is Steiner Street. I’m sure no relation to any of my family.

Only a few hours drive from our home in Fargo, Canada is open again for citizens of the United States to visit. The Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba is a fantastic example of modern architecture and is a place worthy of visiting for reasons far more important than its architecture. It’s a bonus that those upper floors of glass and the observation tower provide spectacular views of the downtown area in Winnipeg.

Governmental buildings are usually classical in architecture. The Colorado State Capitol building is one example of a beautiful classic design. The North Dakota Capitol (below) was built in the 1930s, and for many years was the tallest building in the state.

Though the exterior design is relatively plain, its art-deco interior features are worth the stop to visit the building.

The one-of-a-kind state capitol building in the country is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Known affectionately as “The Roundhouse,” it is the only round capitol building in the United States.

The exterior of the Library of Congress is certainly an interesting example of classical architecture, but the interior is nothing short of spectacular. Forgive me for sharing this image yet again. It really shows off the architecture of this classic government building.

Native Americans created their own architectural designs long before the Europeans came to settle. This is a partial view of the exterior of a Native American 20-unit “condo” that was built by the Sinagua people sometime between 1100 and 1425 AD.

My final example of an interesting design is actually a memorial and final resting place for a Sufi saint. Known as a dargah, this memorial was built in the mountains near Taos, New Mexico. This revered place of rest for Murshid Samuel Lewis is cared for by residents of a small village of faithful followers of Murshid SAM. It provides a place for contemplation and reverence and some shade from that hot New Mexico sun.

I have gathered some additional examples of interesting architecture on my Flickr site. You can get there by clicking on any of the images above, or you can view the entire album here. Thanks to Tina for this week’s architectural photo challenge.

John Steiner

This week, Patti Moed asks us to think geometrically. She writes, “The world is full of shapes. Circles, squares, ovals, triangles, and even some of your favorites from geometry class like parallelograms. For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, we are focusing on geometry—shapes that are visually interesting and form a pattern or rhythm.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

There are many examples in architecture and even a few in nature. I recall several potential images of man-made design, so I will concentrate on them for this post. The image above is the interior roof structure of a dargah near Taos New Mexico. A dargah is a shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint or dervish. It is through a familial relationship that I was introduced to the concept of a dargah. It’s all very complicated but to make it easy, my great-nephew, Beau Gano, was one of the construction managers in the building of this revered place of rest for Murshid Samuel Lewis.

The exterior of the dargah also consists of geometric patterns. The dargah for Murshid Sam was constructed at the 8700 foot (2652 m) level on Lama Mountain.

My second example of geometry in architecture is found in what I consider to be the most beautiful building I have ever had the opportunity to visit. The image above is a view of the Great Hall in the Library of Congress.

Moving back to the western part of the country, a stop at Taliesin West, the winter residence of Frank Lloyd Wright, and home for his school of architecture, brings an opportunity to see the geometry applied in his work.

My last two examples feature images captured at the lighthouse museum on Point Loma near San Diego, California. Probably the very first image I thought of for this challenge is the staircase above, brought to mind when I saw the spiral staircase example in Patti Moed’s original post.

Finally, in that lighthouse, at the top of that spiral staircase, you can get a view of that beautiful lens used to rotate and focus the light that protected the ships and sailors from running aground at Point Loma as they navigated by night into the harbor at San Diego.

Thanks to Patti and the team for a challenge that allowed me to share some of my favorite architectural images.

John Steiner