In 1964 I saw a Charles Guggenheim film on St. Louis. He hitched his camera to the front of a train and ran it across the raildeck. I decided one day I would go there.
Ten years later I did, many times, and photographed the bridge from every aspect.
One morning I dropped my son off at school and heard on the radio that a coal barge was burning under the east side of the bridge. I got my camera and went down to make photographs.
While I was there, I snuggle up to the east abutment and photographed it looking straight up.
Terminal Railroad, the owner of the bridge, gave me permission to photograph the raildeck. I found a narrow crosswalk between the north and south decks, walked to the middle and photographed the arc of the steel arch.
On the deck I looked up and photographed the coupling that holds it all together. |
