All my life I have had a special relationship with bridges. As an art therapist, I know they are a particularly potent symbol. But before I learned all this psychoanalytic psycho-lingo, I just always loved them. I'm going to say right now that this post will be incomplete today because I actually had to cross over several bridges today to get where I am which is sitting on Stuyvesant Street in Manhattan waiting to see some old friends - some of whom I have not seen for nearly 40 years. My GPS sent me to the wrong address and over several additional bridges, but that is another long story. Fortunately this turned out to be a good thing.
So I'll have to leave in a bit and will not complete this before midnight so the next part will posted tomorrow complete with pictures. I promise - pinky swear!
When I was between 6-7 years of age I watched a bridge being built from the window of my grandmothers house overlooking Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island.
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| The Pell Bridge between Newport and Jamestown, RI |
The Newport or Pell Bridge (after Senator Claiborne Pell of the same named Pell Grants for education) look much like this throughout the rest of my childhood. This new shiny bridge connected Aquidneck Island (where city of Newport is) to Conanicut Island where the town of Jamestown is. Jamestown has its own bridge which connects it to the mainland of Rhode Island. The first one was old and narrow and to drive over it one felt like you were on a roller coaster. My mother refused to drive over it. When they constructed the new one guests for our wedding had to be warned not to travel that way bit through Providence and the Mt Hope Bridge instead lest they miss the ceremony. And this was before cell phones or computers.
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| The new and old Jamestown Bridge |
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| Construction of the new bridge |
Prior to the bridge one had to take the ferry across the 2 mile stretch of the bay which is what my grandmother did to go see her doctor in Jamestown. Now my husband does the same easily over the Pell Bridge. When we drove down from Massachusetts where I grew up we had to drive through Providence to reach Newport and over a WPA bridge built in the 30s called the Mt. Hope.
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| The Mt Hope Bridge looks just the same! |
As you can see, I grew up in a land of bridges and they are beautiful. Every week I drive over the Newport Bridge and the Jamestown bridge on the way to another island of bridges in NY. And the view just takes my breath away.
More tomorrow!
What are you grateful for today?
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Please tell me what good thing you encountered today.