Doubles, 2011

These concrete bridges and flood walls aren’t really very attractive until they are dressed with the first changing leaves of autumn and a perfect blue evening sky and a nearly perfect mirrored reflection in the still waters of Chartiers Creek.

This bridge is just outside of Canonsburg and will be part of a photo series I’ve been considering compiling into a calendar to benefit watershed and environmental groups along Chartiers Creek entitled “The Bridges of Chartiers Creek”. Exciting stuff, I know, except that as we canoed beneath the many bridges I noticed that each one was different from the next, with some of the oldest train trestles still standing and a variety of other styles and sizes of bridges all up and down the channel. Each of them is a particular style of construction which in itself is very interesting, and in a way, they chronicle the uses of the creek and the surrounding countryside. That’s the real purpose of it, to tell the stories.

Some bridges have been replaced since I began this project. If I take long enough we can all remember these neat bridges.