Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sunday Bridge Series # 14: Great Northern Railroad Bridge


Sunday Bridge Series # 14: Great Northern Railroad Bridge
Photo & Text © 2010 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.
Several out of town photographers as well as local fellow blogger Chuck Pefley have featured this railroad bridge before in Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridge Series. It may well be the most featured bridge in the series so far :-). It really is a landmark and one of the most recognizable ones that immediately says one is in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. The Great Northern (or Burlington Northern) Railroad Bridge is one of the five bascule (French for teeter totter) bridges that cross the Lake Washington Ship Canal. It is just west of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Salmon Bay, and you can read a brief history here. The bridge remains in the open position unless a train is coming, which makes it a highly visible and identifiable structure. Here it is closed, and you see an evening train heading south across it. More bridges in the series this week can be seen at Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges here.

12 comments:

EG CameraGirl said...

How interesting that it remains open unless a train needs to pass over it.

Kim said...

Yes, that is because boat traffic going underneath is much heavier than train traffic going over most times of day.
-Kim

Pat said...

Unusual angle; good one. And you got a reflection in there, too!

Jim said...

Great shot.

Kaori said...

Did you take this in the evening? I like how the light softly hits the bridge :D

Francisca said...

I've only been following the bridge series since early this month, and yet when I saw this bridge, I immediately thought, "hey, I've seen this one!"... and then I read your post. I can see why this would be a favored landmark.

cieldequimper said...

I just love the light and the train. I bet it's miles long!

Louis la Vache said...

As Ciel pointed out, this must be a long train given the number of engines we see. What a workhorse of a bridge - and welcome contribution to Sunday Bridges.

Janet said...

Kim - I tried to email you but blogger blocked your email address for some unfathonable reason. Yes, let's get together - Thursday should be fine, baby permitting. My email is janian@eircom.net
Honore Bakery is closed for 2 weeks - how about Kaffe Kafka 15th and 70th?

Elisa said...

Very nice!
Best regards from Argentina
Elisa

Chuck Pefley said...

Nice, Kim. If you had not specified "south" one would assume it was headed north. That is one of the nice things about most trains for photographers ... having engines on both ends gives us two opportunities to catch that decisive moment.

Hope you're managing to stay cool, though being a CA girl you're probably reveling in our current warmth.

Halcyon said...

Hee! I have featured it on my travel blog, that's for sure! I've never seen it teetered down though, so this is a lucky catch!