A Photo a Week Challenge: Quintessential Bridges
When you live in the Blackstone River Valley, life is about the river or one of its tributaries. Or an attached stream, pond, lake, or waterfall. The valley has always been about the river.
Photo: Garry Armstrong
It’s also about the bridges. No one thinks much about the bridges because, in our lifetime, there have always been bridges. But the bridges have grown old and every couple of years, one of them becomes bad enough that they have to close it down and rebuild it. That is when you discover how important all those little bridges are and how difficult travel in the valley becomes when even one bridge is down.
Bridge over the Blackstone
Photo: Garry Armstrong
We have lived in the valley for 18 years. During this time, at least half a dozen bridges across the Blackstone River have been taken down and replaced and there are many more that will need to be replaced. When suddenly, the next village over is not a 1-mile drive but instead is a 10-mile drive, you realize how important the river is and the importance of even the smallest bridge.
Share this:
Categories: #BlackstoneRiver, #Photography, Blackstone Valley, Photo A Week Challenge
THE EARLIEST WHIFF OF AUTUMN 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Very lovely snaps these are 🙂
LikeLike
What a perfect take on the theme. Your bridges are essential and beautiful. Wonderful entry! Thanks for joining the challenge, Garry & Marilyn!
LikeLiked by 1 person
First, I just thought about the river because it is really everywhere. Even if you don’t see it, it’s there, behind that clump of trees or that little hill. But then, I thought of how, for a whole year, we couldn’t figure out how to get into Rhode Island because they closed the bridge on our road. Short of driving a huge loop that would take maybe an hour, there wasn’t any way to get there from here. I got more serious about bridges!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Nancy. It was a satisfying and productive day– recorded for posterity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful bridges and photos. I LOVE bridges! There’s something special about them I can’t define.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bridges have a lot of symbolic meanings. Passage over water, passage to “another place.” But they always symbolize passage and when you live in an area that is dominated by rivers, you get very intimate with bridges, but literally and symbolically 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol. I never thought about the symbolism of them but your right. When I think, really think about them, that’s what comes to mind alright.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Covert, bridges span time. From seconds to centuries. A great picture transition device.
LikeLike
It surely is and I couldn’t agree with your assessment more. Nice.
LikeLike
You live in a very pretty area, Marilyn.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is very pretty. Not really convenient or it would be more built up. Too much of the ground is wetland or just swamp. It’s why we are so wooded. Too hard to farm, too swampy to build. We have lots of riverbanks, herons, swans, geese, ducks … and trees 🙂
LikeLike
Lois, we do. We do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
perfect choice. Such beautiful bridges
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are beautiful and they are also the only way to get there from here. A lot of the time, you don’t even realize you are crossing a bridge when you drive, but then suddenly, it’s gone, you really NOTICE.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Daily, it was a lovely summer day. Kudos to Mother Nature.
LikeLike
Bridges are important and when one is suddenly closed you realise it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There was a two year period when we had no bridge to Northbridge — which is right next door and where most of the shopping is. We all thought there MUST be some other way to get there. Nope. Other than a ferry (no ferries) maybe, it was a long drive to the next bridge and back again.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think we struck gold with these pics. Next step – a video??
LikeLike