Posts about Bridges

Presently, the bridge has 5-foot sidewalks and no accommodation for cyclists. The new bridge will have 8-foot sidewalks and 5-foot bike lanes on both sides. Although the rest of Carlin Springs Drive does not have bike lanes now, it is both important and forward-thinking of the county to plan for the future by including them in this project. Arlington County is currently considering ways to improve bicycle accommodations between this bridge and the Ballston Mall.

Had better pedestrian and bicycle accommodations not been included in this rehabilitation project, it would likely have been difficult to change for the next 30 or so years.

Aside from the bridge, Carlin Springs Drive itself is not pedestrian friendly. There is only a single pedestrian-activated caution signal and no fully signalized crossings along the entire 1.3 miles from its origination at the Ballston Mall to the interchange at Route 50/Arlington Boulevard.

It's so dangerous for those on foot, several families who live nearby will not allow their middle-school-aged children to ride the bus, go to the Arlington Forest pool, or bike to the Bluemont Junction Trail unaccompanied because they cannot safely cross the road.

Hopefully these improvements will be the first of many steps to further refine the overall design of Carlin Springs Drive through North Arlington to better serve all users.

The Greater Baltimore Committee—basically the chamber of commerce—is considering ideas to redevelop Rash Field, the underused waterfront park space between Federal Hill and the Inner Harbor. So far their leading idea is to improve access to the park via a new pedestrian bridge crossing the Inner Harbor, connecting Rash Field and Federal Hill to the booming Harbor East area (see map).

The idea seems like a real winner all around. It would connect two neighborhoods of Baltimore that are extremely close geographically but extremely difficult to navigate between, and it would provide a visually beautiful, dramatic addition to the city's skyline. A suspension or cable-stayed bridge over the Inner Harbor would instantly become one of the city's most important visual icons.

The bridge would be designed to open, to let tall ships such as the Pride of Baltimore in and out of the Inner Harbor.

This is still a preliminary idea. It's no sure thing to happen, and even if it does move forward the design could change dramatically. But those caveats aside, GBC's rendering of what such a bridge might look like shows what could become a landmark feature for the Inner Harbor.

Creating a more pleasant route for non-motorized commuters is a good enough end, but for more casual enjoyment, it needs some other qualities. Iconic bridges tend to beautifully express directed motion from one end to another, but not the pauses and distractions of a stroll.

In a way, you create a long pedestrian-only space with no activating buildings. Without a mass of people, those spaces are alienating or unsafe.

Here are some examples that approach the concept differently.

St. Pauls from the Tate end of the London Millennium Bridge, by Ki-Chi-Saga on Wikimedia.

London's Millennium Bridge is a very successful precedent. It's on the long end at 1250 feet, but it's roughly the same size as a Poplar Point Crossing would be. It is part of a pedestrian-only corridor that runs from St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern, two of the busiest tourist attractions in the world. You have great views of the City and St. Paul's, but it's not very wide and not a great place to linger. This best represents the standard connector bridge.

BP Pedestrian Bridge by Frank Gehry for Chicago's Millenium Park. Image by Torsodog on Wikipedia

The foot bridge that joins Chicago's Millenium Park to Grant Park is more interesting, but less practical. In order to avoid imposing staircases, it runs at a slight incline over a serpentine course. Its relaxed experience of compressions and twists are meant more for casual strolling than a commute, but fits the park setting.

The Charles Bridge in winter. Photo by Estec Co. on Wikimedia.

Prague's Charles Bridge offers both experience and connection. It's a little longer than the Millenium Bridge, but it's twice as wide. The space is much more habitable, with vendors hawking touristy schlock on half the space. It has some interesting features, including gateways on either end, refuges, and baroque statues lining the sides. In some ways, it's much more like a park allée than a bridge, where the inward space of the bridge is emphasized as much as the scenery around it.

There's also the precedent of putting buildings on a bridge. The Washington Business Journal recently reviewd some of the more famous unbuilt buildings in DC, in advance of an exhibit at the National Building Museum. Included in the accompanying slideshow is a bridge designed by Chloethiel Woodard Smith, based on Florence's Ponte Vecchio.

Chloethiel Woodard Smith's proposal for the Washington Channel. Image from WBJ.

The Ponte Vecchio, like Old London Bridge, accrued shops and houses over the years, becoming indistinguishable from any other city street. Smith, an influential architect who designed some of Southwest's better buildings, proposed this bridge to cross from the Southwest Waterfront to East Potomac Park.

I don't know whether this would pass a modern environmental analysis, but the opportunity to put restaurants, fountains, or play structures out on the water could emulate the unique atmosphere of a pier, only without the dead end.

A view of the Triple Bridge in Ljubljana. Image by Jaime Silva on flickr.

Lastly, one alternative would be to build a multi-modal bridge, but make the pedestrian facilities much nicer, with big sidewalks, slow speed limits, or maybe even a sensitive grade separation, like Basel's Dreirosenbrücke. Or, a solution like Jože Plečnik's Triple Bridge could be in order. In a set of three converging bridges, the pedestrian experience is considered primary, but light motoring traffic can use it as well.

These bridges show how it's worth applying some ingenuity to the development of the waterfront. The iconic bridge only takes a neighborhood so far. There has to be something else there. Maybe the model should start by looking at not only at good bridges, but also good streets that suit both commuting and for strolling.

If you have any other examples of bridges that provide great pedestrian experiences, please suggest them in the comments.

Cross-posted at цarьchitect.