My love affair with bridges; soaring across the Hudson on foot

Most people consider bridges as structures built for convenience and safety. They are so ubiquitous that we take them for granted, scooting over them in cars, trucks, and trains without much thought. The only time we pay attention to them is when one of them fails spectacularly, like the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis 13 years ago. Fourteen people were killed and 145 injured in that catastrophe. In a similar disaster, a major bridge in Genoa, Italy, crumbled to the ground in 2018, killing 43. The public reaction to bridge tragedies is similar…

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Walking from Manhattan to Brooklyn, 1880s style

A set of bridges sits just south of where I live in Saratoga County, north of Albany. The small suspension spans carry interstate highway traffic across the Mohawk River between Albany and Saratoga counties. The bridges are formally known as the singular Thaddeus Kascsiusko Bridge, but most locals know them simply as "The Twin Bridges," or even "The Twins." I've gone along with this for years, but I've always felt twins was a better moniker for two not-that-similar looking, historic bridges that link lower Manhattan with Brooklyn. Viewed via Google Maps from…

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