Another crane is towering in the background of our kitchen window view. Was the bridge coming down so soon? Had there been enough complaints to raze the structure before it was even finished? A small group of citizens had protested against the appearance of the bridge last Friday. A petition was underway at the local shops. There was much tut-tutting and head shaking and worse. Who in their right mind would impose this upon a quaint mountains village?
I guess that it must come as a surprise when I tell people that I really do like the new bridge. Their mouths tend to get caught somewhere in the middle of an exclamation and an insult. Not at me, of course, but the offending eyesore. I ask them what they don't like specifically and the answers are fairly consistent. It looks penitential (I guess that must be the safety caging), it's the wrong colour, it's a horrid box and totally out of character with the location. That location, I counter gingerly, is a four-lane highway and a railway line. Isn't it's industrial design rather in keeping with what it spans and sits adjacent to?
Sadly, stone-arch bridges with resident trolls are a little hard to come by these days and they are rather labour intensive to build. Concrete spans are not much to look at. This one will have to do for the next few decades or so.
And the crane? Lifting sections of balustrade into position on the uncompleted foot-ramp. Here to stay, I think.
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