The other big local attraction, Royal Gorge. This is the world's
highest suspension bridge. It runs across the Arkansas River. Now
it's true that I have a thing for bridges, but I found this bridge
quite fascinating. Also fascinating was the ghost-town like
atmosphere when I was there. It seems that outside of tourist season,
no one comes around. All the shops were closed and I only saw one
other person (you can see them driving across the bridge towards the
end of the sequence) besides the gate-keeper.
The bridge itself is kinda spooky. The road deck is made up of strong
wooden beams. I'm used to steel or concrete or tarmac. It was
unsettling seeing such an organic material used here. The other
disconcerting thing is that you can see right through the road deck.
The wooden beams are about a centimeter apart, give or take. Not a
good place for people with vertigo. I walked across since there was
no traffic to speak of.
The main thing I didn't understand about the design of the bridge is
that there are two cables underneath the bridge pulling
downwards and outwards. You can see one on the right side of pictures
#481 through #484. What do those cables do? The only thing I can
think of is that they dampen out any motion caused by the wind. Maybe
the bridge is so light that that sort of stabilization is necessary.
Can anyone conform that for me?
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from Dave's
MarginalHacks
on Tue Oct 24 03:26:20 2006
