The Bridge to Nowhere

Atlanta's Bridge to Nowhere

In all the years I've lived in Atlanta, I've never taken photos of the famed "Bridge to Nowhere." I've driven by it plenty of times but never had time to stop and always thought I'd get around to it at some point. 

Also, when I did drive by it, the bridge was usually junked up with trash and old furniture as well as people who I thought might not welcome my presence. You have to read the room when you're wandering around the city getting photos. 

Last Wednesday, the weather was ramping up from hurricane Idalia and it was going to be a full moon, so my friend Lauren and I decided to head out and see if the weather created some cool cloudscapes. I'd read that the Bridge to Nowhere was being torn down but you read a lot around Atlanta that never turns out to be true. 

We decided to head over to the bridge, and I was excited about the prospect of finally getting some photos from the location. 

Well...that'll teach me not to wait. 

The Bridge to Nowhere (it's really the Bankhead Bridge) has officially been...almost torn down. As we drove up to park near the bridge, we could see that there were fences and barriers, and the road leading up to the bridge was now gone. There was no way to get on the bridge to get those nice city views anymore. 

The sky had some nice cloud formations so we got out of the car and wandered around for a few minutes. I did like that pair of abandoned shoes in the foreground of the photo too - looks like someone was walking and just sort of walked right out of their shoes.

It was probably good that they took away access to the bridge because Lauren said the last time she was up there, there were big holes and it would have been easy for someone to get hurt falling through or even off the side of the bridge. I wish I'd moved faster on that one and gotten some shots from the bridge itself before the access was gone.  

The bridge has some cool architecture, and it's too bad that the city never got its act together to incorporate the remaining structure into some sort of path or overlook, which is something that had been discussed. Atlanta seems to be much better at tearing things down than preserving landmarks.

Sadly, they're also good at building big new ugly concrete structures that mar the views. 

We left the bridge after some old guy started yelling at us - trying to tell us about the history of the bridge or something. I couldn't quite figure it out but it seemed like that was our cue to go. 

Atlanta Photo Views

We went up to one of the cemeteries overlooking the city but as we got there, the cloud cover was so thick you could barely see the city and it started pouring rain. There would definitely be no full-moon shots that night:

We headed back home by way of Marietta Street to look at the view of the city from one of the train overpass bridges. 

Oh no. 

I was so upset when we got to the bridge that Lauren asked me if I was going to be okay. Since the last time I was over there, they've torn down two old, visually interesting buildings and replaced them with a tall concrete parking structure that obliterated the view. 

I really felt like crying. 

I got this photo there only a couple of years ago:

The red and green buildings on the left are now gone, replaced by a view of a tall concrete parking deck. 

When I think I can stomach it, I'll have to go back over there and see if I can still get some decent photos from that spot. It really does make me want to cry!

Okay - enough of that.

I hope you're having a great week so far and if all I have to cry about are parking structures in Atlanta, I guess I'm having a great week too!

See you between the raindrops!

xoxo,
Susan 

You can find the above Sunset Flight here.