It's going to take a while to get used to this skyline when heading west out of Bismarck! I never realized how much that bridge seemed like a "door across the river" until it was gone. Having nothing overhead while driving across the river is really weird, especially with the roof open. There won't be any more of those days until Spring, however...unless I get cabin fever and turn stubborn (like THAT ever happens...)
This was taken during the warm weather of the first weekend of November. What a difference a few days make!
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For years I've had a link to the ND DOT Road Report on the right-hand panel of this website. For days like today, it can be quite handy! Clicking on the link takes you to a graphic map of all major North Dakota highways, indicating their status. Not only does it show open or closed roads, but also the conditions of the road surface, such as icy, snowy, or flooded.
There's also a link to an interactive map (pictured above) on this site, a map which allows you to zoom into a particular area. I link to the main page first because it seems to load more quickly. Once you load the page on my link, click on "Interactive Map" and you're good to go. It loads in a pop up window, so check your pop up blocker if it doesn't appear.
This page loads less reliably and more slowly when the roads are bad, like today. Don't give up. Often it'll slow down as all the ND radio and TV stations prepare for their weather or news updates. Give it a couple of minutes and try again...it's a very useful resource.
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( 3.1 / 100 )
I lost track of how many Fallen Farm posts I've done in my series, so now I'm just going to use the photo number. This is a barn near Baldwin, just a stone's throw north of Bismarck. My friend Tony was back home from sunny Alaska for a little while to visit family, and he and I took our cameras to go poke around the outskirts of town while our wives had other things to do.
This is a really cool barn, and I couldn't help but notice some old equipment in the field thereby. It was a perfect shot, a different angle than I've had on this spot before. It's even better when shared with one of my closest friends ever. I've got more to post from the day, but that'll have to wait for another time. I have to go shovel my sidewalks now!
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( 3 / 77 )
With the old Liberty Memorial Bridge gone, and the last of the debris being cleaned up and removed, hundreds - maybe thousands - of pigeons which called it home are now...well, homeless. Granted, they're pigeons and could probably find a perch nearly anywhere; however, pigeons have called that bridge home for decades! In fact, the acid in their poop was a significant contributor to the bridge's deterioration.
Not much goes through the mind of a pigeon. They are, however, attached to the bridge and are still congregating on its wreckage. I'm a bird lover, so I can't help but feel sorry for these birds whose world got turned upside down last week. They don't know any better. These birds will continue to cling to the bridge while it lies in pieces just like they did when it spanned the river.
The columns don't provide much solace for a pigeon, but they're all that's left. Soon they'll be gone, too. Don't these poor guys just look like they're wondering what the heck happened to "their" bridge? I suppose that's the bird lover in me trying to empathize with them.
This sandbar has become a sort of pigeon refugee camp, as has the sandbar just south of the new bridge. They can't stay here forever; soon the river will freeze, and may even rise above this sandbar. They need some sort of bird "community organizer" to come up with a game plan to relocate!
Progress brings bad along with the good. In this case, it's the pigeons who got their world rocked, especially when those explosives went off! I'm told the crew attempted to scare the pigeons away before blowing the bridge, but there's really nothing you can do. Even with the bridge reduced to a few remaining beams strewn about the ground below, you still can't drive those pigeons away. Naturally there was some collateral damage during the explosions. The birds who survived need to find another place soon, as winter is bearing down on us!
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( 2.9 / 88 )
Well, that's it. The old bridge is gone. In fact, the wreckage pictured above was gone in a matter of days. What a local spectacle the demolition of our historic bridge has been! I hope you were all able to attend one or both of the demolition days. It was exciting, yet sad, to see such a beloved landmark come down. My camera was there to capture the moment. Even though it happened in late October, I chose this photo for my November calendar.
Click here to download a printable calendar in PDF format.
If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you're good to go. It may take a little bit for the program to load, but the file should download reasonably quickly. Click on the icon below to download the free Adobe Reader if necessary.
When you print the PDF, fold along the lines and tape or staple at the bottom. You will then have a free-standing desk calendar with a reminder of the bridge that most of us likely remember all the way back to our childhood and has now been carted off into history, one twisted beam at a time.
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( 2.8 / 73 )
Calendar
