Etikettarkiv: bridge

Under the Bridge

Under the bridgeThis is my first under the bride picture. It is one of the bridges across Kungsgatan a very well known street here in Stockholm.

I liked the pattern here it looks a bit greek or perhaps even byzantine in origin but I don’t know who painted it or what the story behind this is really.

It does show however that it pays keeping a keen eye out for interesting angles when doing street photography. I would not have found this interesting subject otherwise, that is for sure.

Kungsgatan means The King’s Street and we also have of course Drottninggatan which means The Queen’s Street here in Stockholm. Kungsgatan and Drottninggatan cross each other very close to Hötorget, a city square where people sell things in an old fashion way still in the middle of the city. You can pick up pretty much anything from this street market, and there is a certairn word for the paintings generally sold here they are sometimes referred to as ”hötorgskonst” hötorget artworks and that generally means they are paintings done by not so good painters often copying classicl paintings or the every so popular crying children that was sold in the seventies and eighties.

Under the Bridge I
Under the Bridge II

The above bridges are two bridges that runs between slussen and the city center. These bridges are connecting the south end of Stockholm with the old town and with Riddarholmen. The first image is beneath the bridge built to carry the rails for the Stockholm Metro. Many people admire the view when they take the metro of the green or red line between Gamla Stan and Slussen, two very busy metro stations. There are ideas of making this a tunnel instead going beneath the water and getting rid of this bridge which has always been a bit troublesome. For one thing it is very tight and you can not work on it while trains are running.

The second bridge also carries rail but also road traffic into the city. On this bridge you see the commuter trains Pendeltåg and the trains going to more far away destinations south of Stockholm. This bridge has been called the wasp waist of the train traffic in Stockholm. Right now there is a great project to tunnel the railroad and increase the capacity further with a minimum of 2 new rails, this project is called Citybanan.

Sjöbergsplan 11

This bridge is also at Slussen and part of the mess of roads going around. The address is Sjöbergsplan 11 and it is not a very nice place, I’d avoid this place after hours in the dark since it is probable the place where you might meet some not so nice people.

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Sometimes you will find a bit of really nice graphitti under the bridge. This is a road bridge out where I live in Kallhäll where someone painted a vegan message. ”Don’t eat my friend.” Incredibly enough this painting have been left alone for years on the bridge foundation although other parts of it seems to be repainted regularly by the local artists.

The Bridges

I am sometimes fascinated by bridges. They have been around a long time and take many shapes and forms and they are always a bit suggestive to photograph.

Over the years I have been collecting a few bridges and I want to present some of my favourites here.

Stone bridge
My first bridge is the old stone bridge in the center of the old city of Skopje in Macedonia on the Balkans. This bridge dates back to the roman empire and have of course been enhanced and worked on from time to time but the general construction is there as you can see. It is a bridge in more than the obvious way, it is a bridge between the new part of Skopje and the Old Town so it bridges in several ways in history. Last time I was there they talked about replacing it with a new bridge but I don't think the people living there would accept that if there is any alternative.
The Bridge
The Golden Gate in San Franscisco. Words are superfluous, what is not to like about this smashing piece of engineering splendour? My own relation to the bridge is that I did not think it was as impressing in real life as on picture but then again if you consider when it was built, the height, the sheer number of bolts used it comes back, grows on you becomes more impressive even. This must be the most famous bridge in the US and probably in the world by now as many movies, TV series and other media it's been in until today and it still stands strong. Check out the thickness of the cables...
DSC_1362
My next bridge is the Humber Bridge. Located in Yorkshire in the north of England this was once the world's longest suspension bridge. My relation to this bridge is that I lived close to it for a time in 1996-1997 when I worked as a games programmer at a company called Perceptions writing computer games for a console that never hit the market but wasnamed "M2" by Matsushita. To bad the company whent bust eventually. In 2006 I went back and took some more pictures of the place and I got a lovely bridge photo that I used to have hanging on the wall where I worked.
Walkingbridge
The last bridge is one very close to my home here in Järfälla. This one leads over parts of a small pond and in the summertime it is usually just a gorgerous greenery around it that makes it into my favourite list of bridges.

These bridges are my favourite bridges so far in the world. Of all of them the bridge in Skopje is the most symbolic and the one I like the best. I miss going to Macedonia meeting the great people there and the country side and the food and everything else…