Suspended

Black And White Photography, Laurie, Mobile Photography, Photography

This is truly “mobile” photography as I took the shot with my phone while driving under the tower of this suspension bridge.

The Arthur Ravenel Bridge is a 2.5 mile long cable-stayed suspension bridge with two diamond-shaped towers, each 575 feet high. The bridge, which connects Charleston and Mount Pleasant, is named after Charleston politician Arthur Ravenel who led the campaign for the bridge to be constructed over the Cooper River. Construction took less than four years and the bridge opened to traffic on July 16, 2005, at a cost of $632 million. Almost 80,000 cars travel on the bridge daily. The bridge’s structure is designed to withstand shipping accidents and natural disasters that have plagued Charleston’s history including hurricanes with wind gusts of 300mph and earthquaktes of 7.4 on the Richter scale. To protect the bridge from drifting ships, the towers are flanked by one-acre rock islands. Ships will run aground on the islands before colliding with the towers. To see a bird’s eye view of the bridge, click here.

Liberty Bridge

Black And White Photography, Laurie, Photography

_MG_2857-2

Greenville, South Carolina’s Liberty Bridge

It was an overly bright and beautiful morning, and somehow, my camera settings were off (perhaps because I was riding the bicycle with my camera bumping along against my back).

Such a cool stop on the way to Atlanta, and a wonderful bicycle ride.

At 345 feet long, 12 feet wide and 8 inches thick, the concrete reinforced deck is supported by a single suspension cable. The deck’s distinctive curve has a radius of 214 feet and it is cantilevered toward the waterfall from supporting cables on the outside. The bridge deck also inclines 12 feet or 3% from east to west over the river.