Under The Bridge

This was the view beneath the New Pass Drawbridge over New Pass in Sarasota Saturday night. I kinda liked the way the sunset was illuminating the normally dark space, making it glow more than plain old concrete columns should.

Night Falls

I'm getting close to the end of my first full day of pictures in DC, which means I only have all of Saturday and Sunday, as well as most of Monday, left to share with you. Are you starting to realize how long this might take? Anyhow, here are a few shots of DC from atop the bluff where Arlington House is located across the Potomac in Virginia. The shot above is a panoramic of many DC landmarks including the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building and even the Jefferson Memorial. There's plenty of other stuff in there, too, but those are the highlights.

Here's the view starting at JFK's Eternal Flame, then across the Memorial Bridge, ending at the Lincoln Memorial.

Marine helicopters are constantly buzzing the skies over DC. This one wasn't actually anywhere near the Capitol Building, but from my perspective, it sure looks like it.  That's the Library of Congress to the right, the Jefferson Building, I believe.

And another view of the Memorial Bridge and the Lincoln Memorial, reflecting the last rays of the setting sun.

In And Out

Here's a little something about DC that I didn't know until I was doing some research for my last post about the fish in the Tidal Basin. There are two channels into the Tidal Basin, one for incoming water, the other for outgoing water. The one above leads to the Potomac River, and as the tide is rising, the gates open to allow water to enter the basin. On the other side of the basin is the gate below. The rising tide on the other side of this gate, in the Washington Channel, forces those gates closed. As the tide goes back down, the flow reverses. Higher water levels in the basin force the gates to the Washington Channel to open, thus flushing debris and sediment from the otherwise flow-free channel. I had no idea that all of this existed, I just thought the gates underneath the bridges were there to keep pleasure boats out of the Tidal Basin. See what you can learn!

Out Back

I don't think many visitors to the Lincoln Memorial walk all the way around the building. You may think there is nothing to see from back there, but you'd be wrong. The most obvious item is the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which leads across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia. That's General Robert E. Lee's house at the top of the hill on the other side. His family used to own all the property that became Arlington Cemetary. You can even see a few rows of gravestones in this shot.

On the DC side of the bridge, there are two large gilded statues by Leo Friedlander. This one is called Sacrifice.

And this one is called Valor .

Going off in a slightly different direction, and not directly behind the Lincoln Memorial is another road, this one flanked by two more statues.  I don't know what road it is, but that's not important. The two statues, however, are important. Collectively they are called The Arts Of Peace By James Earle Fraser. I believe this one is called Music And Harvest.

And this one, on the other side of the road, is called Aspiration And Literature. I didn't realize when I was actually in DC and looking at these four statues that they weren't all by the same artist. I guess that's what I get for not doing my homework ahead of time.  I've got lots more pictures of these statues coming up later, since I went down and actually got close to them.  I'm just sharing these now since they were shot from the Lincoln Memorial.  See, it does pay to wander around sometimes.

A Bridge So Far

One of the other things I shot last night was the Sunshine Skyway, the bridge across the mouth of Tampa Bay. I'd been meaning to get up there to shoot it since they finished repainting it almost a year ago. This is from the south rest stop, probably a little over a mile away from the center span. The yellow support cables are lit from beneath, so the ones you see the best are the ones you can see the underside of. This was probably a two minute exposure, and that's why the headlights and taillights are long trails on the approach. And it was a nice clear night so you don't see a lot of scattered light in the atmosphere.

The Next Week Of March

The calendar page this week is a gorge in Brecksville, Ohio. That's Tinker Creek you see running through the rocks and under that stone bridge in the background. I believe it's Route 82 that runs over top of the bridge. Oddly enough, I'm actually headed to Ohio tomorrow morning, but I doubt if I'll have any time to get out and take pictures. But you never know.

Update: I was mistaken. It's not Tinker Creek that flows throught this gorge, it's Chippewa Creek. It flows all through the Brecksville reservation, eventually reaching the Cuyahoga River. Sorry about that screw-up. I guess I did get some use out of my recent trip to Ohio after all.