WHERE?

The intersection of Broadway and Chestnut in downtown St. Louis, looking east toward the Arch. There is a junction of several major highways, leading  to several bewildering signposts like the one on the right. Think fast!

The historic building on the center and right is known as the Old Courthouse. It is part of the national park that includes the Arch (it's America's smallest). There is a complete restoration in progress.                

No Exit

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A St. Louis existential dilemma. You can't get there from here.

Sorry no comments yesterday. My entries for the SEEN 2012 photo exhibit and competition are over due and I spent the evening putting together frame kits.    

Southwest

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One difference between American cities and those in other parts of the world is the highway system. In most of the planet there are few or no superhighways inside of a beltway. Nothing like that in Paris inside the Périphérique and just a bit within London's M 25. Beijing has its many ring roads but there are no spokes into the heart of the city. The autopista from Buenos Aires' airport just disolves into city streets in the outskirts.

Not so in the U.S. Our Interstate highways dissect the hearts of our cities. Look at Chicago's "Spaghetti Bowl" from the air, just west of the Loop. My home town, New York, has roads sometimes called the Cross-Bronx Distressway and the Long Island Expressway, a/k/a the longest parking lot in the world (or sometimes the Big LIE). Let's not even get into Los Angeles, where Carmageddon is scheduled for this weekend.

Same here. Although we're smaller scale. Interstate 70 cuts off downtown from the Arch in the heart of the city. The highway rolls out through the Soulard neighborhood to the south, where these pictures were taken from a pedestrian crosswalk. The road doesn't just go southwest. One lane goes south down I 55, the other west along I 44, cutting the city into different sections. That's American urban planning.

Night Interchange

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We had the firm holiday party on Friday in the revolving restaurant atop a 30 story hotel near the Arch and the river. Of course, I insisted on a window seat and kept taking handheld blurry pictures out the window. Most of them are junk but I like this one. It is the tangle of highways on the Missouri side of the main bridge over the Mississippi. The bright spots, particularly in the lower left, are reflections from the restaurant.

Many thanks to all of you who left comments on my 1,000th post yesterday. Sunday was pretty hectic with errands and family stuff so I was not able to respond individually. I'll try to get back to everyone.