San Francisco sights

You might glimpse some of these sights if you're in San Francisco...

Coit tower in the distance...

The pointy AmeriTrade tower...
















What?  Is that Alcatraz at the end of the street?
Yes.  It is.

Tonto natural bridge

Tonto natural bridge is a 400 ft long limestone cave that forms a bridge over a small creek.

Pictures really don't convey how big it is.

Or how slippery the rocks were when climbing on them.

Or how deep that quiet looking pool of water is.

It was while resting at this point I asked some questions of the park ranger nearby. 
I asked him if the park had changed much during his ten years working there.  He said, "Oh a lot," and I expect him to tell me how the water run off had shifted rocks or that some edge of the cave wall had fallen in.  "We built all new bathrooms this year and we lengthened the parking area.  All the picnic areas are new...." 
Not what I meant, Mr. Ranger.
Though, an hour or so later, I really was glad for those fully modern and updated bathrooms. 

Soleri Bridge

Two silos?

Twin towers?

Bell tower?

Nope, it's the Soleri Bridge on the waterfront in Scottsdale.
Waterfront?  In the desert of Arizona?
Yes, that is apparently how they refer to the approximately 20 foot wide canal running through thes plaza area. 

Scottsdale public art.

Art, waterfront--it's all a matter of perspective.  

Troll under the bridge

Under a bridge in Fremont, Washington
there lives a troll.







People come to climb on it.
Because "interaction with the troll is encouraged". 

This troll likes to crush cars.
That's a real volkswagen bug under there.

So people come.
To poke at his one hubcap eye.
Stick their arms in his nose.
Climb on his head.

He's a big troll, but not so scary.

Puget Sound

 Puget Sound was only ever just a...'sound'...to me.  It was something far away in a place I'd never been and didn't imagine to see.

Now its' a sight, and a memory.

I've ridden one of its ferries,
crossed some of its bridges,
and seen its sunsets.

It is a pretty part of the country.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

While paying the toll to cross the bridge over the Tacoma Puget Sound, my friend asked the toll-taker about the history of the bridge. 

My realization:  I know so little about Washington or Tacoma in context. 

Back in school when we learned about structural vibration and resonance, we watched a short clip of Galloping Gertie, a bridge that collapsed in a 1940 windstorm.  It was a dramatic bridge failure.

"I haven't had a question about that before," said the toll-taker.  I don't know much about the history, except that the one to the north there was built to replace Galloping Gertie, and this one here's been open about six years and I've worked here since then."
I nodded at the reference to the replaced bridge, but still did not connect it to my actual location.  The Tacoma Narrows Bridge today is two bridges--the one built in the 1950s to replace the collapsed bridge, and a second added in 2007 to help with traffic flow.

Galloping Gertie bridge's structural collapse was sort of Titanic-like.  Awe-inspiring man-made construction, first of its kind is a gigantic failure laying at the bottom of a body of water. 
When I saw the video in high school, the state of Washington and its bridges were so far away, and the Mackinaw bridge was built structurally sound because of the engineering lessons learned--all was still right with the world (read:  me and any bridge I might cross over were safe).
I never expected to find myself actually on the Tacoma Narrows bridge that had replaced the most epic bridge failure ever captured on film. 
Even when I actually drove over it, I still did not realize where I was or connect it to it's historical context.

 A bridge in Washington collapsed only a few days before I arrived in the state.
And I drove over Galloping Gertie.

The things you never imagined you would connect to your own life outside of science class...wild.

River crossings

I am fascinated by this.

From the simplicity of bridges, where you have to cross the river yourself with your own two feet.
To the simple poled ferry for a few to cross over.
Or for many to cross.
People wait to get across the rivers and canals of the backwaters.
To go over just themselves.
With their shopping.
With their bicycles.
And--yes!--with their motorcycles.
Whoa.
Would you dare put your motorcycle on a boat like that?
I wonder if they've lost any...

There are many ways to cross a river.
Cool.