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OT: Scary bridge crossings.

LionJim

LionJim

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I visited my daughter in LSD (Lower Slower Delaware) and the winds were howling when I crossed the Bay Bridge at around 1530 yesterday, on the way home. I’ve made the trip a thousand times but never was it more challenging than yesterday, the van was buffeting. I’m a strong guy, but I had to hold onto the wheel for dear life. The pouring rain didn’t help my state of mind.

Apparently being too afraid to drive over the bridge is a thing. I know ten or so people who have told me as much. Maryland used to have a system where someone would drive you and your car over, for a fee; I think that’s gone now. Anyway, boy, it was enough of an experience for me to start a thread about it.
 
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bohucon

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LionJim said:
I visited my daughter in LSD (Lower Slower Delaware) and the winds were howling when I crossed the Bay Bridge at around 1530 yesterday, on the way home. I’ve made the trip a thousand times but never was it more challenging than yesterday, the van was buffeting. I’m a strong guy, but I had to hold onto the wheel for dear life. The pouring rain didn’t help my state of mind.

Apparently being too afraid to drive over the bridge is a thing. I know ten or so people who have told me as much. Maryland used to have a system where someone would drive you and your car over, for a fee; I think that’s gone now. Anyway, boy, it was enough of an experience for me to start a thread about it.
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Have driven over it many times on my way to and from Delaware and yes it can be scary when the wind is blowing. They closed it down 2/3 x's last year because of the wind.
 
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psuro

psuro

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LionJim said:
I visited my daughter in LSD (Lower Slower Delaware) and the winds were howling when I crossed the Bay Bridge at around 1530 yesterday, on the way home. I’ve made the trip a thousand times but never was it more challenging than yesterday, the van was buffeting. I’m a strong guy, but I had to hold onto the wheel for dear life. The pouring rain didn’t help my state of mind.

Apparently being too afraid to drive over the bridge is a thing. I know ten or so people who have told me as much. Maryland used to have a system where someone would drive you and your car over, for a fee; I think that’s gone now. Anyway, boy, it was enough of an experience for me to start a thread about it.
Click to expand...
Proof positive that with LSD you run the risk of a bad trip....

Third Eye Dreaming GIF by Phazed
 
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psuro

psuro

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Midnighter said:
Those guys are just building what and how they're told to build.
Click to expand...

There was and always will be blame for everyone involved. Design engineers, contractors, the Client Rep who is supposed to oversee what was being built.
 
FHSPSU67

FHSPSU67

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I drove over the Bay Bridge on a Sunday night in February of 1970 for a new job at Fort Monmouth. It was a stormy night with heavy winds as I began crossing and the radio started playing "Bridge Over Troubled Water".
 
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PSU87

PSU87

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There's a bridge in Norway, somewhere on the long journey from Stavanger to Bergen. I could probably find it on a map....

We are approaching the bridge. My Norwegian coworker looks behind us, sees no other traffic and says "stop just before you pull onto the bridge."

No exaggeration, that bridge deck was bucking 10 feet up and down. I guess it was fairly well known in Norway, but deemed safe multiple times.

Wierd sensation crossing it....felt more like a boat ride
 
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step.eng69

step.eng69

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Maybe one day the New York Marathon will bring a few structures to collapse.



 

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Lion84

Lion84

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I like going that way when I drive my Daughter back to school in Savannah from SEPA to avoid the beltway around Baltimore and DC but it is a little disconcerting even in a light wind and the croppy water if not far below you on the low sections of the bridge.
 
Tom_PSU

Tom_PSU

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I have no idea if it’s still there, but years ago I used to cross the Delaware river on a rickety old bridge from Bristol to Burlington. Wind or not that bridge was a nightmare.
 
Big_O

Big_O

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I have driven across two of the bridges mentioned above. Drove numerous times over the Bay bridge when I lived in DE for several years. Some of the drives across the were downright frightening due to bad weather. I don’t ever remember them closing the bridge due to bad weather when I lived in DE, but may have missed the news about a closure since I didn’t pay attention to such things if I wasn’t heading that way.

Now I live south of the Tampa St. Pete area and travel across the Skyway bridge many times a year, but they do close that one either for fog or high winds.
 
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LionJim

LionJim

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Tom_PSU said:
I have no idea if it’s still there, but years ago I used to cross the Delaware river on a rickety old bridge from Bristol to Burlington. Wind or not that bridge was a nightmare.
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Yeah, the toll was five cents.
 
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SoCalLion

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Very southern tip of Illinois where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi (Cairo, Illinois) ------ there are a pair of bridges that are particularly high, tight and narrow.

One bridge crosses the Ohio, the other the Mississippi and you can drive those bridges literally back-to-back, it's only 0.5 mile between them*.

I wasn't "scared" per se, but those were the most un-nervy bridges I've ever been on (I've been across the Bay Bridge multiple times, it was fine, but admittedly always in good weather).

----------------

* "Fun" fact --- There are 107 different combinations of states that share a land and/or river border. PA/NY, PA/MD, NJ/NY are 3 among those 107. Anyway, Kentucky and Missouri is the only one of those 107 where there isn't a road that connects the 2 states. This is the closest you can get: you drive from KY to MO, but you spend a very quick minute/mile in Illinois in between.
 
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Tom_PSU

Tom_PSU

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LionJim said:
Yeah, the toll was five cents.
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I found a cheaper one. A funny story with the joke on me. I think around 2002 or so I was driving in the state of Mississippi and needed to cross over the Mississippi River into Arkansas. I was on a road with moderate traffic and I saw a sign saying “something or other bridge “, i can’t remember the name, taking traffic over the river.

I turned off to use the road to the bridge, but no one else did. Five miles later I reached the river, but there was no bridge. I turned around, got back on the original highway and stopped at a gas station. Told my story and everyone had a good laugh. Apparently they ran out of funding, or it was diverted elsewhere, and the state of Mississippi never bothered to remove the bridge signs. I asked why put up signs before building the bridge? I got one of those you’re not from around here are you looks.
 
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retsio

retsio

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If or when you travel - please note:

The bridge over the mouth of the Columbia River at Astoria, OR is 6 miles long, and does close for 'weather'.
The bridge that connects Northern Michigan to the UP over the straights of Lake Michigan has tight lanes with very low guardrails on both sides, there are secondary drivers for many cars daily in windy conditions, and just any driving condition.
The Golden Gate Bridge lanes are 231 ft. above the water level. When driving south on #US 1, take the last right hand turn before the bridge lanes and drive up the hill for a great view of San Francisco (in the movie 'the Internship').
In the 1950's, the wooden bridges from island spit to island spit taking you from Manahawkin to LBI were just that - wooden, just above the water level and horrendous during Hurricane winds.
The 'bridge' taking you from the bottom of DelMarVa to the top of VA is a tunnel underwater for miles in two sections.
 
Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie

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I like this one at Dingmans Ferry PA that crosses the Delaware River and connects NJ and PA. Super narrow and I think the bridge roadway is made of wooden planks and the super structure looks like its made from a kid's erector set. . You can fast forward to the 1;20 mark.

 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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scary in an unusual way is the Washington Crossing bridge. It spans PA - NJ, over the Delaware River, from Washington Crossing, PA to Washington Crossing, NJ.

The bridge was built in 1905, and its road deck is only 15 feet wide, meaning that lanes in each direction are only 7.5 feet wide. In addition, while the access road on the PA side is straight onto the bridge, on the NJ side it's nearly a 90° turn from the access road to the bridge. The 90° isn't too bad when going from PA into NJ, but when going from NJ to PA, you pretty much can't turn onto the bridge unless there is a break in the cars coming from PA.

Due to the narrowest of the road decks, even on bright sunny days, it's pretty rare to go the entire length of the bridge (@ 877 feet) without encountering a car coming in the opposite direction that stops due to concerns that they're going to side-swipe a car driving in the opposite direction. As such, backups frequently occur on the bridge due to cars stopping as the driver loses their nerve.

I believe the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, which owns the bridge, issued Request for Proposals earlier this year for a consulting team, to start the environment review process, for the purpose of eventually designing and constructing a replacement bridge.

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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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Hugh Laurie said:
I like this one at Dingmans Ferry PA that crosses the Delaware River and connects NJ and PA. Super narrow and I think the bridge roadway is made of wooden planks. You can fast forward to the 1;20 mark.

Click to expand...


ah yes, that's a good one. It's wider than the Washington Crossing Bridge that I wrote about in a prior post, but the Dingmans Bridge (also called the Dingmans Ferry Bridge) isn't super wide.

The road surface is made of wooden planks -- specifically, salt-treated British Columbia fir planks.
 
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maypole

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LionJim said:
I visited my daughter in LSD (Lower Slower Delaware) and the winds were howling when I crossed the Bay Bridge at around 1530 yesterday, on the way home. I’ve made the trip a thousand times but never was it more challenging than yesterday, the van was buffeting. I’m a strong guy, but I had to hold onto the wheel for dear life. The pouring rain didn’t help my state of mind.

Apparently being too afraid to drive over the bridge is a thing. I know ten or so people who have told me as much. Maryland used to have a system where someone would drive you and your car over, for a fee; I think that’s gone now. Anyway, boy, it was enough of an experience for me to start a thread about it.
Click to expand...
No it’s still a thing. You can still pay a driver to take across the bridge.
 
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Bison13

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As someone who regularly crosses the Bay bridge through the summer to head down the ocean, hon, I can say that driving across it even in spectacular weather is no fun if you have enough idiots on the bridge at the same time.
 
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