Have you ever been on a bascule bridge? Well this summer I
toured a bascule bridge on Martha's Vineyard. If you are wondering, a bascule
bridge is a type of bridge with a pivoting section that is raised and lowered
using counter waits. Matt set up a private tour with the architect of the
bridge. His name was Jamie Doyle. First of he showed us his office where I got
to take a look at the blue prints. Each print was completely different and
there were hundreds! After that, he drove us to the bridge and took us under
the bridge. There was a walking path with benches and trees along the way. It was a miniature park. After that, he walked us up and onto the
bridge. There I got to see the barrier
gates, which are basically huge metal gates that block cars from going over the
bridge when it’s opening. Next, he showed
us inside the bridge. There was a control room with tons of buttons. Some
opened the gates, some sounded horns, while others opened and closed the bridge.
You get the idea, there were millions of buttons. After looking inside the
control room, we went down a ladder and into a room with huge motors. They were bigger than me! Jamie taught me basically everything I know
about draw bridges. I am so thankful for
this learning experience and hope to continue to learn about bridges.
1 comment:
That's a good-sized bridge! I've seen them before, but I never knew the official name of that type of bridge. I don't know if you're going to write more about the bridge, but here are a couple questions that came to mind when I read your article - first, what is the purpose for this particular bridge? I get the idea of drawbridges in general, but why here? Also, does someone need to be stationed at the bridge all the time in case it needs to be raised, or is the drawbridge part only available certain times of the day?
Thanks for sharing!
Miss Ostertag
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