Sunday, June 30, 2024

Looking At The Twin Tacoma Narrows Bridges & Mount Rainier


What you see here is known as the Tacoma Narrows Bridges. Twin suspension bridges connecting Tacoma to the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington.

That mountain in the background is the volcano named Mount Rainier.

I was in Tacoma several times earlier this century, during the construction of the new bridge, that being the one on the right.

That bridge was clearly built over water, really deep, fast moving water, when the tide changes.

I was seeing this bridge get built over water at the same time I was seeing the Texas town called Fort Worth struggle to try and build three simple little freeway overpass type bridges, over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Those responsible for building those Fort Worth bridges repeatedly told the gullible Fort Worth public that these three bridges were being built over dry land, to save money, when there was no other option than to build the bridges over dry land, with one day, hopefully, a cement-lined ditch to be dug under the bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, thus creating the imaginary island.

Apparently, Fort Worth's plan to create that imaginary island has run into an engineering snafu regarding the design of the mechanism which would divert river water into that cement-lined ditch.

Back to the Tacoma Narrows bridges. Aesthetically speaking, methinks it would have been visually more appealing if the new bridge looked exactly like the older bridge. But, it is wider. And the towers that support the suspension cables were made to somewhat look like the other bridge's towers, but, for some reason they were not painted green, which would have been so much more aesthetically pleasing.

It has been a few years since I have been in Tacoma and seen the Tacoma Narrows bridges. Maybe those gray towers of the new bridge have now been colored to match the original bridge...

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