Saturday, December 4, 2021

Beauty in practicality?

 


There's a chap who posted pictures from the French town of Strasbourg located on the Rhine River. The river marks the border between France and Germany in this area. Often the fellow posts pictures of bridges and invariably these bridges are beautiful. Many are decades, or even centuries, old, so it is clear that these bridges are very practical as well.

A few years ago the bridge spanning the Thames River in London, Ontario, between the city golf course on the north side of the river and Springbank Park on the south side was a beautiful, narrow, suspension bridge. The bridge grew old requiring either extensive restoration or replacement. It was replaced.

Today the span is wider, far more stable, practical and dull. Was this really the best decision? I cannot imagine the folk of Strasbourg demolishing an old and and very graceful bridge in order to erect something more akin to a Bailey bridge.

2 comments:

William Kendall said...

Good shot though.

Stefan Jansson said...

Money talks I guess. We have a similar situation in Stockholm, although with much larger bridges with a lot of traffic.