DESTINATIONS EAST

 

Under a railroad trestle, looking at what we call the Poplar Street Bridge, where Interstates 44, 55 and 70 cross the Mississippi River. Here in the Midwest, major cities are a few hours drive apart.               

Fork In The Road

Getting on and getting off the main highway viaduct over the Mississippi, known locally as the Poplar Street Bridge. The direction is from Illinois to Missouri.

This blog promises the occasional rant, and they are very occasional indeed. But there can be the occasional rave. Our wonderful little summer opera company, Union Avenue Opera, is doing an ambitious Ring Cycle over four years. It's a "reduced" version for small companies and houses (UAO plays in a church with a semicircular auditorium and good acoustics). This summer's offering is Die Walküre, which we attended last night. O M G. This was the most intense, brilliant performance on the musical stage this town has seen since I don't know when. The long, tender final scene with Brünnhilde and Wotan actually brought tears to these cynical old eyes. We're going back again next weekend. If you're around The Lou and you like opera, you gotta catch this one. St. Louis Post-Dispatch review here.

Engineering

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This is the main highway bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis. Its official name is the Bernard F. Dickman Bridge but nobody around here knows a thing about Bernie (mayor of STL in the 30s - I looked it up) and nobody calls it that. Everybody refers to it as the Poplar Street Bridge, for the small street it leaps over as it leaves Missouri. Three Interstate highways cross the river on it. For all that, it looks kind of dull and the ramps and interchanges on both sides are a mess (interesting discussion here). Still, it has a massiveness that suits the river it crosses. Check out those heavy duty shock absorbers between the bridge deck and supporting piers.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series.

HDR in Perspective (Poplar Street Bridge)

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This picture was taken from the Missouri side of the Mississippi River looking east southeast toward Illinois. It is under the bridge that carries Interstates 55, 64 and 70 across the Big Muddy. It has an official name but nobody remembers what it is. Everybody calls it the Poplar Street Bridge.

I like this HDR better than some of the others because the light is strange and attractive. It looks like there is a low sun right over the far side of the bridge that somehow also illuminates the underside of the deck. If you look at the angles of light and shadow on the right you can tell that the sun was actually to my right and a bit behind me. I don't know enough about HDR yet to explain why this happened but it's kind of cool. Also like the ghostly car in the lower left.

WHAT'S A BIG RELIEF: no more legal hearings for two weeks (yippie!) and a week in the beautiful Pacific Northwest coming soon.

TOMORROW: keep on truckin' in HDR.

AND ONE MORE THING: happy birthday to team member ShadowyOne, our big kid. The family is going out to some new fusion restaurant tonight she's interested in. Hope it's not cold fusion.

Across the River

What we call the Poplar Street Bridge is the main vehicle crossing of the Mississippi River, carrying Interstates 55, 64 and 70. The span is functional, not beautiful, but the scene looks pleasant in Golden Hour light and big, gentle cumulus clouds.

I am curious about our visitors reactions to my posts of the last two days regarding the Kirkwood murders. As I write this late Sunday evening, no comments were posted about the day's pictures and comment, although there were a considerable number of visits. We usually try to show beautiful, arresting or humorous images on our CDPB blogs but I don't think that tells the whole, true story of our cities. Each town has beauty and squalor, joy and tragedy, celebration and quotidian routine. When I can, I'd like to show a variety of views of St. Louis, and not just pretty ones. It's just life here.

How does that approach make you feel? Does it seem uninteresting or uncomfortable, or does it intrigue you? Share your thoughts about this.