Bridge to the past

Girders in green
Montreal, QC
September 2012
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The Jacques Cartier Bridge was opened in 1930. Construction began in 1925, which means it was probably designed a few years before that. As I stood under its massive understructure, I thought about the now-vanished engineers who, long before computers transformed the industry, conceived this...thing with nothing more than slide rules, pencils and graph paper. Amazing.

And yet here I stood, almost a century after this process began, watching once-unheard of amounts of modern traffic continue to course over this vital artery. Bridges are indeed the connective tissue of island cities like Montreal, and it's hard to stand under one and not be awed by the historic significance borne on the shoulders of people who knew their creation would far outlive them.

Cool beans.

Your turn: Got a bridge near you that you'd like to talk about?