Racing the Bridges

When you live on an island, you deal with draw bridges and their openings...

Here in Palm Beach there are three that carry nearly 37,000 people back-and-forth every day:

• The Southern Bridge to the south
• The Royal Park Bridge in the middle
• The Flagler Memorial Bridge to the north.

When we moved here we learned that people call them North Bridge, Middle Bridge and South Bridge. {How civilized.}

When deciding which bridge to use for any given outing, I want to employ my intuition for the drawbridges openings. Each drawbridge has the possibility of opening twice an hour when needed for boats to travel under them. So far, so good, right?

{source} North Bridge

So it makes sense to have the bridges at the top and bottom of the island, open at the top and bottom of the hour, right? Then have the middle bridge, open in the middle of those.

NOT!

The middle bridge opens at the top and bottom of the hour and the North and South bridges open at quarter past and quarter til. ARRRGH! Even after living here nearly 2 years, I still have to look at the time and stop to think which bridge might be opening. Sigh.

{source} Middle Bridge

So what happens if you get "caught" and you are in a hurry? I know, just leave one bridge's line of traffic and "race" to the other? Right?
Ummmm, NO! I doesn't work! (I know. I tried it. More than once...). Here's a tidbit. I recently I found out, the average time for a bridge opening is only 7 minutes.Now, I take deep breath, put the car in park and read something on my Nook, play a game on my phone or clean out the receipts in my purse. Ahhhhhhhh! I realize it may be the only 7 minutes I have to do nothing in a day.

{source} South or Southern Bridge

Another deep breath, look at the palm trees, water and sky and remember how thankful I am to be living here. I might even love those bridges a little bit more.

Want to learn more about the history of Palm Beach bridges? Click here.

Have a fab day. Eli

Build a Bridge and...

December 5, 2011, 10:30am, begins the reconstruction of the Flagler Memorial Bridge, affectionately called as the North Bridge.

It is one of three bridge that link Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, over the Intercoastal Water Way.

From December 5 through 16, the bridge will have one lane closed from 10:30am to 3:30pm. You'll want to plan extra time to cross and remember to factor in extra time for draw bridge openings which can happen any hour, at quarter past and quarter til.

I thought I'd share some photos of the North Bridge's current beauty. What will happen to these lovely accessories once the new bridge is built?

One interesting bit is that the old bridge, after being completely removed, will be recycled as "a structure within an existing artificial reef site in the ocean just to the southeast of Lake Worth Inlet." (source)

So enjoy; tomorrow they may be gone...

 

Can you see a small, yellow "heart"?

 Thanks for joining me today. Until next time, Eli