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Bridges are very important to Philadelphia
both geographically and functionally. Obviously, the purpose that a bridge
serves is to connect to things to each other - to create a mutual connection
and flow between things. The bridges that one can find in Philadelphia offer
many different types of connections and functions, from state-to-state,
river bank to river bank, etc. The many different bridges of Philadelphia add
to the variety and character that the city already has, and one can see from
the Market Street Bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and the Walnut Lane
Bridge how different the looks and lives of different bridges in the same
city can be. Aside from the more obvious functional differences of each of
the three bridges, a prospective filmmaker also has the advantage of each of
the three bridges having totally different aesthetic qualities.
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| recent picture of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge with cosmetic lights |
Congress authorized the Benjamin Franklin
Bridge in 1921, with work starting in 1922 and ending in 1926. It is a steel
suspension bridge that spans in total nearly 2 miles. At the time of
completion, the then named Delaware River Bridge acted as the longest
suspension bridge in the world (Moss, Historic Landmarks of
Philadelphia, p. 249). Head engineer for the bridge was Polish
born Ralph Modjeski, and the bridge’s architect was Paul Philippe Cret. The bridge accesses
1-676 and US-30, connecting Camden to Philadelphia over the Delaware River.
However, Pennsylvania and New Jersey argued originally about funding for the
bridge - “New Jersey wanted toll booths on the bridge while Pennsylvania
wanted the bridge for free, using tax money to pay for the construction” (cited here). Contrary to
its name, Benjamin Franklin did not have anything to do with the bridge until
a few decades after its construction. The bridge’s name was changed from the
Delaware River Bridge to the Benjamin Franklin bridge in 1955 as a tribute to
Franklin and to make the bridge more Philadelphian. In the late 1980s the
bridge was decorated with lights so that it could be visible at night, and to
increase the aesthetic value for bridge-goers and passersby.
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| the 'Gattaca-esque' Market Street Bridge |
A far more simple Philadelphian bridge than
the Ben Franklin is the Market Street bridge, which spans over the Schuylkill
River on Market street near 30th street station. The bridge was designed by
Timothy Palmer in a simple arch fashion and was built in a series of bridges
on Market street, the first being built and re-built multiple times inbetween
1805-1888. The current Market Street bridge near 30th street station was
built in 1932. As of 2009 was reported to have nearly eleven thousand
vehicular travelers per day (cited here). After seeing and being on the
Market Street bridge I could not help but to immediately think of Gattaca,
and how it could be taken right from there. Although the Market Street bridge
does not really fit into art deco style architecture, it fits so well the the
surrounding buildings are really gives that area of the city (Drexel verging
on Center city) a specific look - one that feels professional, functional,
simple and beautiful. The bridge’s design is not really that special but what
I am getting at is that it is totally fitting and serves the function it
needs to. The linear qualities of the bridge matching surrounding buildings, the dull color that matches 30th
street station, its general simplicity - I find all of these qualities
telling of the bridge and area, and I can see a mutual relationship between
the bridge and the area. They seem to go well with each other. One could
argue that the bridge does not aesthetic value, but I think it is very
appropriate. For three days in October of 2010 the bridge was used as the
centerpiece for interactive art via the wonderful Mural Arts Program.
Beautiful, color-changing lights were placed under and around the bridge and
interacted with people who sat on them and audiences who gathered around
them. More information on the installation can be found here.
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| Walnut Lane Bridge in construction |
Although it is not as impressive of an
architectural feat of the Ben Franklin Bridge, The Walnut Lane Bridge is
probably my favorite bridge in the city. A simple concrete arch designed the
early 20th century and completed in 1908, one would not think that there is
much special about the Walnut Lane Bridge. The bridge connects two
neighborhoods - Roxborough to East Falls. What makes the Walnut Lane bridge
so special is that it was pretty much built into the woods, and looks like it
could be on a postcard. It reminds me of a place that you could re-film the famous bridge/train scene in the film Stand
by Me. The Walnut Lane bridge was added to the National
Register of historic places in 1988.
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| Walnut Lane Bridge post-construction |
We can see the various connections that
bridges make in our daily lives through the three bridges examined here. The
Benjamin Franklin connects state to state, the Walnut Lane connects
neighborhood to neighborhood, and the Market Street Bridge connects people
and cars in a specific area of the city where the river blocks. Given its
location, Philadelphia has to cooperate with the rivers that surround it.
Bridges are how Philadelphians and the like cross great bodies of water and
Bridges are a great tool for that, a necessary evil for some. Gephyrophobia
is “specific fear of crossing a bridge” (cited here). This article cited
a psychotherapist who had clients have “their wives lock them in the trunks
of their vehicles and then drive them across the Bay Bridge”. It seems to me
to be a very modern fear, an invention of the times. For example, my best
friends’ mother has a crippling fear of crossing bridges and will go miles
out of her way to avoid them (she closes her eyes and demands silence in the
car when she does have to take them). It is things like this that make me
realize how alive and well modernistic views of the world still exist. Like
early pedestrians fear of being run over by a runaway trolley, it is that
same notion of distrust of machinery that lives with bridges. It made me
wonder: what do people really fear? Is it a lack of trust of the sturdiness
of material? Is it the fear of human error that could potentially cause a
bridge disaster? I think the latter suggests a more modernist approach.
Bridges are, to me, cool even just conceptually. I see bridges as a pinnacle of
architecture. The idea that we can cross huge bodies of water, being elevated
high above sea level, while in our vehicles or on our feet just prove to me
the nature of human beings to explore ways around problems that we face
against the natural world (like crossing a body of water). They prove to me
that we can collectively come up with solutions for universal problems and
give me hope that human beings are smart enough to master problems like that.
Look at the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge-Tunnel for example. It spans twenty-three miles, and
gets its travelers to the point where they wonder when the last time they
were on land does. This is definitely not a bridge for someone
who was gephyrophobia. I mentioned bridges as a human solution to
a natural problem, so they became the standard for how every motor vehicle
travels across bodies of water. Film crews that want to shoot on a bridge
have to balance inconveniencing the traffic for the crew and vice versa. The
traffic jams that a big-budget film
like The Dark Knight Rises cause show how affected a city and
intercity traffic in certain areas (in this case Queens, NY) can be by the
production of a film. Bridges are how we get places - they are loved, hated,
and necessary. Pennsylvania not only has bridges like the Benjamin Franklin,
Market Street, and Walnut Lane Bridge, but the other 76 bridges in Pittsburgh
which is thought of as one of the best
bridge cities in the world. Whether you are taking a bridge to get
to work, hiding in the trunk of your car while your wife drives you over a
bridge because you’re crippling fear of bridge travel, or if you are a big
budget filmmaker who wants to shoot on a bridge, it is hard to deny that
bridges act as wonderful ways of everyone having the opportunity to get from
one place to another - something that wasn’t possible for human beings at one
time. They are solid proof that human beings have changed the world. And I think
that’s damn cool.
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