Clark Street Bridge

No more posting until after Labor Day. Maybe I'll see a thing or two between now and then. It's been known to happen.

This is the Clark Street Bridge in downtown Chicago, as it appeared very recently.
 

This is the Clark Street Bridge, rising into the air. Sure, it's pivoting on its fulcrum, but still. An engineering marvel.

Today I also learned that Carl Sandburg wrote a poem called "Clark Street Bridge." He must have been inspired by the older one on the site, since the bascule bridge pictured here was built in 1929, while the poem dates from the 1910s.

DUST of the feet
And dust of the wheels,
Wagons and people going,
All day feet and wheels.

Now. . .
. . Only stars and mist
A lonely policeman,
Two cabaret dancers,
Stars and mist again,
No more feet or wheels,
No more dust and wagons.
     Voices of dollars
     And drops of blood
     . . . . .
     Voices of broken hearts,
     . . Voices singing, singing,
     . . Silver voices, singing,
     Softer than the stars,
     Softer than the mist.