Music, especially rock and roll
- Who is playing where
- Best radio stations
- The best places to see live music.
- Great live shows that I've attended.
Atlanta's Bridges
Friday, June 25, 2004
I'm going to take a few pictures and make a few comments. It will always be a work in progress. Here is a starting list. If you know of other nice or intersting bridges in Atlanta, let me know.
Ormewood Avenue SE Railroad Bridge is a tall, red, arched beauty elevating the Atlanta and West Point tracks.
Druid Hills Bridge over Ponce De Leon on the west side of Decatur.
Flower Bridge is at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens is a small arched pedestrian bridge. Very plesant in the elevation or to stroll across. It's like a path through a garden which of course is exactly what it is.
Krog Street Bridge is the gateway between Cabbagetown and Inman Park built in 1912. Overhead is the CSXI Hulsey truck / rail container terminal. It's a throwback with lot of columns, sidewalks on either side of the roadway, graffiti everywhere, and it's not very nice. It is notable for being one of the most not-Atlanta places you can find: Old, dark, industrial, scary, grungy, and cool.
Park Drive Bridge (1916) is the East entrance to Piedmont Park from Monroe Drive. It crosses Clear Creek and a nearly abandoned railroad spur. It's human-friendly to walk or drive across. It's a modest beauty from 10th street and demonstrates why a city park shouldn't be all natural. If we left it alone it would be a jungle of kudzu, poison ivy, and honeysuckle.
17th Street Bridge (2003) They tore down the Atlantic Steel Mill and planned to build a parking lot, Atlantic Station. Then they had to build a completely new bridge to cross I-75/85 from Midtown. After quite a civic fuss they build a way-above-average highway bridge. It's nice from the highway and you get a unique view of Atlanta from the deck. When you drive across, it doesn't seem like a bridge: It's tall hump, four-plus lanes, very wide sidewalks, and streetlights make it almost claustrophobic but not bad, actually.
Nelson Street Bridge is just one of a conglomeration of railroad viaducts just west of downtown. This one's eastern end goes under a bridge between two CSX office buildings! The old Atlanta Terminal Station passenger depot stood near here. The bridges and viaducts don't make much sense now. It's as if they chopped off downtown at Spring Street and built a wasteland.
Bridge to Nowhere is an abandoned steel cantilever bridge over the railroad tracks near Georgia Tech. I don't know anything about it but there it is. Bankhead Highway NW used to cross the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks just south of where Northside Drive crosses the tracks today.
Spaghetti Junction is where I-85 North Crosses I-285. The official name is "Tom Moreland Interchange." All the interstate highway interchanges and remarkable but utilitarian engineering feats that we take for granted. Also known as "dysfunction junction," it's our only nicknamed interchange. Of course many cities have their own special junction. I don't think I can produce a picture that could do it justice.
(last updated on June 17, 2004 )