Tag Archives: bridge

Yoga on the Bridge

Posted on by Bill Chance

As I rode up for the All Out Trinity Festival on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge the Yoga classes were in full swing. Restful music spouted from a PA system set up along the edge of the blocked up traffic lanes. The leader was talking into a microphone. Thousands of people were spread out over hundreds of yards of roadway, all stretched out on their mats. It was something to see.

Yoga on the bridge. (click to enlarge)

Yoga on the bridge.
(click to enlarge)

Yoga on the bridge. (click to enlarge)

Yoga on the bridge.
(click to enlarge)

Yoga on the bridge. (click to enlarge)

Yoga on the bridge.
(click to enlarge)

People walking from the yoga event with their mats under their arms. All Out Trinity Festival - Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

People walking from the yoga event with their mats under their arms.
All Out Trinity Festival – Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)

Walking Across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

Posted on by Bill Chance

For only the second time in its short history pedestrians and bicyclists were allowed to walk across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge – the westbound lanes were closed for the All Out Trinity Festival.

All Out Trinity Festival - Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

All Out Trinity Festival – Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)

W.H. ‘Jack’ McAdams is my hero

Posted on by Bill Chance
Design District, Dallas, Texas (click to enlarge)

Design District, Dallas, Texas
(click to enlarge)

Steel, Rivets, and Concrete

Posted on by Bill Chance
(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven! Rivets. To get on with the work—to stop the hole. Rivets I wanted. There were cases of them down at the coast—cases—piled up—burst—split! You kicked a loose rivet at every second step in that station-yard on the hillside. Rivets had rolled into the grove of death. You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down—and there wasn’t one rivet to be found where it was wanted. We had plates that would do, but nothing to fasten them with.
—-Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

Seventh Street Bridge

Posted on by Bill Chance

She’s driving home Sunday morning, with the
heat turned up, the windows rolled down
to the edge.
And yesterday, snowed for the first time.
Now no one’s on the Willis Avenue Bridge.

Used to be a hard merge.

—-Willis Avenue Bridge, David Berkeley

On our bike ride in Fort Worth last weekend, we made the point of riding across the new Seventh Street Bridge. It was pretty cool.

Seventh Street Bridge Fort Worth, Texas (click to enlarge)

Seventh Street Bridge
Fort Worth, Texas
(click to enlarge)

Seventh Street Bridge Fort Worth, Texas (click to enlarge)

Seventh Street Bridge
Fort Worth, Texas
(click to enlarge)

One really cool thing about the bridge is the bike lane.

Bridge and Jail

Posted on by Bill Chance

Another night, long exposure, a different zoom from the same spot, the abandoned parking garage, I shot from earlier. The white and red bars are the cars going by on the Interstate – smeared out in time. The buildings are part of the Dallas jail complex with the Calatrava designed Margaret Hunt Hill bridge in the background.

Dallas Jail complex with the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge in the background. (click to enlarge)

Dallas Jail complex with the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge in the background.
(click to enlarge)

The crossing between the parking lot you see and the building to the right is what I call, “the saddest spot in the world.” When you drive by there early in the morning on the weekends you see a crowd of families crossing from the lot to get in to bail their loved ones out of jail.

I’ve never been in there, but when I was younger I would occasionally get a desperate call to go down there and bail somebody out. After paying the clerk and waiting around for everything to process they would shuffle out. On the way to the car I would ask, “Well, what is is like in there?”

Nobody ever answered.

The jail complex is the Lew Sterrett Justice Center.

We all know how nasty the reviews on Yelp can be – but Lew Sterrett gets some intersting press there.

From Yelp:

I had a delightful time at Lew. The industrial vibe of the accommodations, combined with the summer camp atmosphere among the guests, somehow managed to be both sophisticated and good old-fashioned fun. The noise level was high, like the best hipster restaurants. And the complementary proctological exam was a nice surprise. Big D, little A, double L, A, YES!

this guy had something to say:

Wow this is the crappiest place on earth. I have been here twice(last time was November 06, and I would like to say the accomodations were dirty, dingy and downright disgusting. The staff seem like former Walmart employees or even criminals themselves(not to say that all inmates are convicted criminals because they are not). One word of advice…as soon as you get in, grab the nearest toilet paper roll(they are like gold in here) eat a couple of bologna sandwhiches, drink some fake cool aid, and live for the moment because you never know what the hell is about to happen around or too you.

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

Posted on by Bill Chance

(click to enlarge)

An HDR photograph of the Calatrava designed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge across the Trinity River near downtown Dallas. I was setting up the tripod when the train came steaming along over the trestle between me and the cable-stay bridge. I had to rush the picture before the train went by and didn’t get the focus right… better luck next time. This is a tone-mapped image taken from a single RAW exposure. Since the train was moving at a pretty good clip, I couldn’t use a three-exposure HDR image – I tried it and there were too many strange effects around the train because it was in different spots in each exposure.

Under a Trinity River Bridge

Posted on by Bill Chance

(click to enlarge)

 
I drove down to this little roadside observation park on the Oak Cliff side of the river to take pictures of the new Calatrava Bridge that is nearing completion. I couldn’t resist a little stroll in the river bottoms and took this 3-shot HDR image of the underside of the Commerce Street Bridge. It is amazing how quickly polite society and organized civilization disappears in places like this. 
 
The top side of the bridge.
An article and slideshow on the graffitti.