Month: December 2022

2022 Bridgehunter Awards: Voting Underway

Photo by Geoff Duke on Pexels.com

FINALLY! After several weeks that featured delays due to illness and other non-bridge related commitments, voting is officially underway for this year’s Bridgehunter Awards by the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles. Between now and January 21st at 4:59 pm Chicago time, 11:59pm Berlin Time, you have an opportunity to vote for your favorite bridges in eleven categories. The voting platform that is being used this year is StrawPoll, which allows for an opportunity to view the photos of each of the bridge candidates. Information on the candidates can be found also in the link. In the categories of Bridge of the Year and Lifetime Achievement, there is a summary for each of the bridge candidate.

So without further ado, here is your voting ballot. Good luck with the voting and let me know if there are any questions, etc. 🙂

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Bridge Tour Guide USA

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/QrgeVNO8OZp

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Bridge Tour Guide International

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/kjn1j7JKJgQ

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Best Bridge Media/Genre/Book

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/XmZRjwDm9Zd

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Lifetime Achievement

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/3RnYpG1kpye.

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Endangered T.R.U.S.S.

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/xVg7dBPprZr

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Best Example of a Restored Historic Bridge

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/xVg7dBAVKZr

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War Time Bridge

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/NoZrLamNBn3

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Bridge of the Year

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/7rnzGj95DgO

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Best Bridge Photo

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/NMnQB4omAg6

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Best Kept Secret Individual Bridge

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/XOgOJp5vrn3

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Mystery Bridge

https://strawpoll.com/embed/polls/BJnX4PMk8nv

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The Bridgehunter’s Chronicles would like to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2023. Check out sister column The Flensburg Files, as it is doing a Christmas Calendar series. Click here to follow. 🙂

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What Caused the Suspension Bridge to Break? — REJINCES

A suspension bridge on Machchhu river in Gujarat’s Morbi town collapsed on October 30, 2022, leaving more than 130 people dead. The 230-meter bridge, built during British rule in the 19th century was touted by the state’s tourism website as an artistic and technological marvel. It had been closed for renovation for six months and […]

What Caused the Suspension Bridge to Break? — REJINCES

Cellpic Sunday – The Old Bridge at Betanzos — Journeys with Johnbo

Gateway bridge to the city. Betanzos, Spain. Try as I might, I couldn’t find any information about this bridge that leads into the Spanish municipality of Betanzos. Even Wikipedia, often my resource of last resort failed me. Oh, there is plenty of information on the Internet about Betanzos, the population is around 13,000 residents. It […]

Cellpic Sunday – The Old Bridge at Betanzos — Journeys with Johnbo

Bridge through Time — Grace of the Sun

Arrive at the bridge,take a long deep breath,gain inner courage,bruised thoughts meet their death. I cling to the past,because it is known,the only time lived,where outcomes are shown. A present today,is the current state,live in the moment,forgetting blind fate. A written future,not currently seen,created details,live in the machine. Look back at old days,a whimsical time,oblivious […]

Bridge through Time — Grace of the Sun

2018: A Grand Opening for One of Norway’s Longest Bridges — Transportation History

December 9, 2018 In the northern part of Norway, the Hålogaland Bridge in Narvik Municipality made its formal debut. This suspension bridge crosses the mouth of the fjord known as the Rombaken. The Hålogaland Bridge carries European Route E6, a major north-south thoroughfare for Norway as well as the western coast of Sweden, across that […]

2018: A Grand Opening for One of Norway’s Longest Bridges — Transportation History

Mystery Bridge Nr. 184: The Bridges of Minsk

One of the late entries of the 2022 Bridgehunter Awards in the category of Mystery Bridge has to do with the bridges of Minsk in Belarus. Natallia Tsahelnik, who runs an Instagram page entitled “These Are Bridges” has nominated the structures for this category for even though one may look at the bridges as plain and bland, looking underneath them, one will find some unique designs in the column. In a statement she sent to the Chronicles:

“Here’s the thing about the majority of bridges in this country: due to the terrain specifics (flat, some hills, mostly flatlands and lowlands), due to the emphasis on economy and efficiency with little thought about elegance (hence the preference for concrete and beams, my guess), and probably due to something else I’m not aware of (as I’m not a specialist in bridge design), many road bridges and plenty of river bridges may seem dull and monosyllabic when you cross them or take a look at them from the road level. However, the beauty hides down the deck in the design of piers and supports. Here is where the pattern, the idea, simple elegance, and all the laconic details can be seen.”

It is unknown who was behind the design and construction of the bridges in and around Minsk, but judging by their appearance, they may have been built between 30 and 40 years ago and the engineer(s) behind these bridges must have been an artist that wanted to be known for his work in a unique way, but when crossing them or going underneath the bridges, they are often ignored because the structures are simply boring. This was one of the main reasons she started the page as she quoted:


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“I’ve started this project @these.are.bridges because I’ve been fascinated by bridges for a while now. But I also wanted to show that there’s beauty in conventional designs; a bridge doesn’t necessarily have to be an old arch masterpiece, a cool cantilever, truss, or suspension bridge, or a fantastic multilevel intersection. Sometimes you need to take a look under it to notice its beauty”

Have a look at the pics and see what you think of them. Are these arguments justified and why would a bridge designer focus simply on the piers as a work of art? Feel free to comment.

A couple of these pics are in the running for Best Bridge Photo. The ballots are currently being put together and we hope to have them ready by this weekend for you to vote. This year has been exceptionally busy for this author for many reasons. Thank you for your patience.

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Interesting But Disruptive — Old Structures Engineering

That’s the railroad viaduct on Park Avenue, basically a wall cutting the neighborhood in half. This was constructed by the New York Central Railroad in the late 1800s and extended between 1900 and 1910 when the line was electrified and things generally reconfigured for the new Grand Central Terminal. 413 more words

Interesting But Disruptive — Old Structures Engineering