Field Trip: Delaware Memorial Bridge
This image is found on the Delaware River and Bay Authority web site.
This field trip was breathtaking and mind blowing. If you ever have the opportunity to go, DO! The time at the bridge got off to a bumpy start. We waiting for about an hour for the PowerPoint presentation to work. Apparently there was some sort of network error that wouldn’t let our instructor’s computer communicate with the overhead projector. Sigh, technology. Reminded me of problems with technology in the classroom–if it doesn’t work within five minutes move on to plan number two otherwise you’ve lost your class’ attention for that day. Luckily we are all adults and waited patiently. It was worth the wait to see the early pictures of bridge construction and see the feat that they were performing back in the late 40’s through 60’s. The presentation could not top what we were about to see though–the bridge from middle to bottom to top.
We took a drive across the northbound bridge, made a U-turn, and drove to the middle of the southbound bridge. We got out and walked to one of the anchors as cars and trucks whizzed past. The anchors are those giant concrete legs to the Delaware Memorial Bridge that I, naively, always thought were solid. They are huge and empty with plenty of room to walk around. And walk around we did. On the way down to the bottom of the anchor platform was tiresome but relatively easy when compared to the ascent. On the way down we stop here and there and talked about the engineering that allows the bridge to do what it does. On the way up there was no stopping. Just step after step of irregular steps up and down as we worked our way back to the top of the road.
From there we walked to one of the towers and took an elevator, that was probably 2×2 with 3 adults jammed in it, to top. We weren’t quite at the top so we had to climb two or three ladders to the top. From there the view was amazing. Wherelse can you stand where you are not technically in any state but can see four?
