January week 3 – Bay Bridge at 75

This past week’s two images are not what I would call “stand alones” worthy of hanging on your wall or invoking guttural sounds of appreciation or inspiration.  But they are a part of a larger picture and segments of a story or a collection of memories.  This is important photography as well.

The Bay Bridge opened to traffic 75 years ago on November 12, 1936. “The Year of the Bay Bridge” will conclude until November 2012, with activities to celebrate this monumental structure. Visit  history timeline to learn about the bridge’s 75 years of service (enjoy the video).

The new section from Oakland to Yerba Buena and Treasure Island is well underway and the single Self-Anchored Suspension tower is elegant even with the construction crane on top of it.  The tower is composed of four separate pentagonal legs, each of which is made up of five vertical sections or lifts, connected by shear link beams.  Eventually the old bridge in the foreground will be taken down so this conglomerate can only be photographed for a short time.

The sun rise wasn’t outstanding but the way the colors were divided by the bridge deck intrigued me as well as the reflection in the bay waters off Treasure Island. After mounting my camera on a tripod, and I got in a few shots, the lights on the bridge were turned off.  Never hurts to be early when waiting for the dawn colors.

My second image is the beginning of what looks like a cable of the Bay Bridge from the San Francisco side.  This is on Beal Street near Bryant, photographed on a different morning.  The yellow is from the artificial lights on the street. The pre-sunrise deep blue of the sky is a nice complement to the yellow.  After sunrise this detail of the bridge will be a dull grey grounded in a dull colored cement.  Timing and light makes all the difference.

The 75th anniversary of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge is reason to celebrate.  But on this day I/we celebrate Roe v. Wade’s 39th anniversary and yet attacks are still waged against women’s constitutional rights to reproductive health care even though a majority of Americans agree with the Roe v. Wade decision and support a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion care.  289 days left until election day …  may the wisdom of the ancient shamen women guide us!

(and if your politics are different from mine, I hope you still enjoy my images….)

It was a toss up – talk about “anniversaries” or the defeat of the SF 49er’s.  Hopefully next week I will get back to migratory birds, mustard in the vineyards or Chinese New Years….hum, always something to fill the camera’s view finder.

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