Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Many bridges are worth the price to cross
Columnist Bill Rettew writes about his fascination with bridges, and which ones are his favorites.
Just don’t say I suffer from gephyrophobia. I love crossing all types of bridges.
Many fear crossing bridges and there are bridge staffers available to drive those who are afraid of bridges across particularly large ones.
Maybe gephyrophobiacs dislike change. Bridges often take us to a much different place. Often it’s a political border crossing — simple dashes in the sand on a map — or other times crossing a wide river or canyon into a much changed typography.
What follows are some of my favorite bridges:
• Seven Mile Bridge, Florida Keys, One of 42 bridges along the 113 mile long U.S, 1, or Overseas Highway. What remains of Henry Flagler’s former train bridges, which opened up Key West to the Mainland, parallel this road that seemingly splits the Gulf of Mexico to one side and the Atlantic Ocean to the other. It may be my imagination, but I can see a real difference in the color of both bodies of water.
• Roebling Suspension Bridges in Wheeling W.V., and the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City. All those cables on suspension bridges look almost messy. I’ve ridden a boat below the Brooklyn Bridge and it’s on my bucket list to walk across it.
The Brooklyn Bridge is New York City.
• Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, near New Orleans, At almost 24 miles long, with 9,500 pilings, it’s impossible to see land from the middle of this span. This is the longest continuous bridge above water in the world.
• Phoenix Steel bridge, rises above the French Creek in Phoenixville. This column bridge was built not far away, at the Phoenix Steel site. With all that exposed steel, it’s a fun walk—it feels like you’re walking back into history.
• Tower Bridge, London and the London Bridge, Lake Havasu, Arizona. These two bridges are often confused for each other. The London Bridge was sold for $2.5, packed up and moved to Arizona. The Tower Bridge still majestically rises above the River Thames. That’s quite a contrast. When I strolled across the London Bridge, the thermometer spiked at more than 100 degrees F. London rarely, if ever, sees such temps.
• Golden Gate Bridge, The world’s prettiest bridge? Built in 1937, the towers are 4,200 feet apart, with 80,000 miles of wires holding it up.
• Ben Franklin Bridge, Stretches from Philadelphia to Camden. Called “Bennie” by many of the traffic reporters on KYW. This is a joy to walk across, if only to beat the $5 toll.
With seven lanes - an odd number - a temporary concrete zipper wall, separates four lanes headed into Philadelphia from three headed the opposite direction, during the morning rush. Three lanes of traffic are headed to Philly during the afternoon rush. More commuters live in New Jersey and work in Philly than vice versa.
As a tour guide on the duck boats, I teased New Jersey residents about the toll charged to get into Pennsylvania, while it’s free to enter New Jersey. They’d
often quip back and refer to the toll as a New Jersey exit tax.
• The Sunshine Skyway, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Known as the “Flag Bridge,” it’s towers are a burst of Golden Florida sunshine. I traveled beneath this bridge on a cruise ship and the captain announced that sailing beneath a bridge on a ship or boat is good luck.
• Chesapeake Bay
Bridge Tunnel, Md. It took 30 years to complete this 17.6 mile span connecting the Eastern and Western shores. Part bridge, part tunnel, drivers motor underwater so that in case of damage during a possible war in the bay, the Atlantic Ocean would still be accessible by ship.
• Drawbridges, including the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge and another in LaBelle, Fla. Along with dozens of others, I regularly get stuck waiting for just a single Florida sailboat to pass.
• George Washington Bridge, N.Y., A double decker bridge which is totally cool. One of the best views of New York City, if you can take your eyes off the road long enough to look.
I once traveled over a brand new bridge in the Deep South. Hilariously, my GPS unit showed me driving across blue water, with no roadway beneath my wheels.
While new bridges pop up every once in a while, it’s the old stone and covered bridges I enjoy crossing most. There’s no sweeter sound than rattling the boards beneath your wheels when driving across a covered bridge.
While stone bridges were made to last, we do regularly need to rebuild or level one and start from scratch. Late, great Daily Local News reporter Jim Callahan taught me just how much Chester County residents adore their stone bridges.
As a young reporter, I’d phone the newsroom while pitching stories after covering municipal meetings. Callahan or Managing Editor Bill March would then ask a few questions and suggest what I should cover.
I told Callahan that a local bridge was slated for repair. I considered it no big deal and expected that Callahan would pass on a basic bridge fix story.
He perked up and asked if it was a stone bridge. I told him that I didn’t know. Callahan told me who to contact at
Penn-DOT and just what information to get, including the number of the bridge, since state bridges are all numbered.
“If it’s stone, give me 500 words,” he said. “People love old stone bridges.”
The next day I went out to find the bridge, take a picture and discovered that it was stone.
Since then I’ve formed a great appreciation for stone bridges. They’re a big part of our heritage. I enjoy looking, while often crossing slower than necessary.
While functional, bridges often serve as huge public art - possibly better than a museum (and sometimes with a toll.) It’s worth the price of admission just to cross.