Bridge Over Troubled Waters No More
May 26, 2013 6:22 PM Subscribe
Do you have Gephyrophobia? Are you afraid to cross that scary bridge? Now there's a service to help you get across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge instead of going miles out of your way to go around. "Some people go miles out of their way to avoid crossing the George Washington Bridge — for example, driving to Upper Manhattan from Teaneck, N.J., by way of the Lincoln Tunnel, a detour that can stretch a 19-minute jog into a three-quarter-hour ordeal. Other bridge phobics recite baby names or play the radio loudly as they ease onto a nerve-jangling span — anything to focus the mind. Still others take a mild tranquilizer an hour before buckling up to cross a bridge."
This is not new. I grew up in the Baltmore area, and this type of service was offered in the late 80's by the local police departments for the Bay Bridge, and the Harbor Tunnel. You either drove yourself, with a police car following (lights/siren OFF) or an officer drove your car, and his or her partner followed in the police vehicle.
My mother made use of it once, but because we were having car trouble driving home from Ocean City and she was scared the car would break down in the tunnel and figured if she had a police office right there, then it would be much easier to deal with. She's mildly claustrophobic, but this was the only time it was legitimately scary.
posted by FritoKAL at 6:43 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
My mother made use of it once, but because we were having car trouble driving home from Ocean City and she was scared the car would break down in the tunnel and figured if she had a police office right there, then it would be much easier to deal with. She's mildly claustrophobic, but this was the only time it was legitimately scary.
posted by FritoKAL at 6:43 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
"Now there's a service...?" Actually there's been a service for many, many years. It used to be that you could get an employee of the Maryland Transportation Authority to drive you over, but the state basically handed that over to the commercial providers (and there are several.) I've been riding over the Bay Bridge since the year I was born, and driving myself over it since I turned 16 and got my license, nearly 30 years ago. It's absolutely gorgeous up there, but I can totally see why people get freaked out by the drive.
posted by jburka at 6:45 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by jburka at 6:45 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I commute across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Your terrifying bridge is just a little apostraphe.
posted by localroger at 6:49 PM on May 26, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by localroger at 6:49 PM on May 26, 2013 [7 favorites]
Seconding localroger! I made that commute for two years--once I was the last allowed on the bridge in a rainstorm that got worse very quickly. It was disorienting. Water above, below, all around! I also had a phenomenal journey home one day when for miles and miles I could see the sunset on my left and the full moon rising on my right. It was hard to keep my attention on driving. On balance, I was happy to give up the commute and move back to the city.
posted by Anitanola at 7:11 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Anitanola at 7:11 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
When I lived in Atlanta there was a guy making a living coaching people into driving through Spaghetti Junction, the dizzying array of bridges and overpasses where I-85 and the Perimeter Highway intersect.
posted by COD at 7:22 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by COD at 7:22 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Here in Washington State, we've been trying a different approach: we're moving entire sections of our bridgeways under water.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:26 PM on May 26, 2013 [17 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:26 PM on May 26, 2013 [17 favorites]
I commute across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Your terrifying bridge is just a little apostraphe.
Nonsense, there's nothing remotely scary about a causeway. It's flat. The Bay Bridge is very high.
Though the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is way more intense.
posted by spaltavian at 7:28 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
Nonsense, there's nothing remotely scary about a causeway. It's flat. The Bay Bridge is very high.
Though the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is way more intense.
posted by spaltavian at 7:28 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
I commute across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Your terrifying bridge is just a little apostraphe.
The Causeway sits 15 feet above the water, it's not quite the same experience.
Considering the rate at which our bridges are falling, this isn't quite as irrational these days...
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 7:30 PM on May 26, 2013
The Causeway sits 15 feet above the water, it's not quite the same experience.
Considering the rate at which our bridges are falling, this isn't quite as irrational these days...
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 7:30 PM on May 26, 2013
I crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and George Washington bridge last year by bike, they are great bridges, nothing scarry about them at all. I got a polite warning though on the other side of the CBB since bikes aren't allowed to cross it.
On the way into Montreal though, I came across a bridge which was being rebuilt. The surface was gone and I was just walking from rebar to rebar, pushing my bike along, looking down over 8 lanes of highway traffic. That made me twitch a bit, but it was better than taking a long detour.
posted by ecco at 7:32 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
On the way into Montreal though, I came across a bridge which was being rebuilt. The surface was gone and I was just walking from rebar to rebar, pushing my bike along, looking down over 8 lanes of highway traffic. That made me twitch a bit, but it was better than taking a long detour.
posted by ecco at 7:32 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
I used to have an old car I was trying to fix up and tore the carpet out in order fix the gaping rust hole in the floor. I learned that the expansion joints on the Chesapeake bay bridge (the metal grating on the bridge roadway) look solid from the normal viewing angle, but when you can look straight down, they turn invisible and you can see straight to the water. It was oddly unsettling for someone like me who doesn't like heights.
posted by 445supermag at 7:32 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by 445supermag at 7:32 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
Well i would raise you all on the Causeway being flat with my occasional trip across the incredibly terrifying Huey P. Long bridge across the Mississippi River, but they done gone and spent half a billion dollars or so fixing that, so I can't complain about it no more. Fucked up my whole local bridge narrative they did.
posted by localroger at 7:40 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by localroger at 7:40 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
Correction: I just went to the wikipedia page on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, it turns out I didn't cross it. I crossed another bridge over the Bay, the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge.
posted by ecco at 7:52 PM on May 26, 2013
posted by ecco at 7:52 PM on May 26, 2013
The Tampa Bay Bridge is really heinous. It's not so bad on the way up, the roadway fills your forward vision and you can try to ignore your peripheral vision. And then you go over the top and suddenly you can see how high up you are.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:58 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:58 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
I developed bridge phobia on trip from Indiana to Boston. In New York State, I came around a corner near the Hudson River and saw a rusty old railroad bridge. I began to worry, thinking I had to use that bridge. But no. I soon saw that I had to cross the Hudson on a bridge where half the deck had been removed to be replaced. Begin panic attack. My passenger had to talk fast to keep me going. The occasional collapse since then, and knowing that our general national infrastructure isn't what is should be, have not helped my frame of mind when approaching a bridge.
posted by bryon at 8:01 PM on May 26, 2013
posted by bryon at 8:01 PM on May 26, 2013
I have a weird thing about driving or walking over bridges. It's pretty minor, just some chills or goose bumps.
But if I'm riding in a car with someone else driving? No problem.
I have no idea why.
posted by Foosnark at 8:18 PM on May 26, 2013
But if I'm riding in a car with someone else driving? No problem.
I have no idea why.
posted by Foosnark at 8:18 PM on May 26, 2013
I'm not afraid of the George Washington Bridge, I'm afraid of the fucking $13 cash toll to get across it.
posted by delfin at 8:19 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by delfin at 8:19 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
Still others take a mild tranquilizer an hour before buckling up to cross a bridge.
They're are driving a car. How can this be a good idea?
posted by rdr at 8:24 PM on May 26, 2013 [4 favorites]
They're are driving a car. How can this be a good idea?
posted by rdr at 8:24 PM on May 26, 2013 [4 favorites]
Pussies. You wanna try something truly terrifying? How about the Sikorsky Bridge before they replaced it with the new, upgraded version that DIDN'T make you feel like you had absolutely no control over the direction of your vehicle?
Urban legend had it that the original steel grates were inadvertently installed upside-down, giving drivers no apparent traction and making them feel like they were drifting in every direction and no direction simultaneously.
Jesus, I hated that fucking bridge.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:29 PM on May 26, 2013
Urban legend had it that the original steel grates were inadvertently installed upside-down, giving drivers no apparent traction and making them feel like they were drifting in every direction and no direction simultaneously.
Jesus, I hated that fucking bridge.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:29 PM on May 26, 2013
I don't have a problem with bridges that run fairly straight and flat, like that big causeway in Louisiana, or the Golden Gate bridge; I know I'm over water and everything but I don't get twirly about it, ho hum. But on a bridge that does some serious climbing and does it fairly fast, on those I get on edge, even sortof that feeling I get when I get too close to an open elevator shaft or the edge of a building or cliff or whatever, like there's a sort of pull and I have to back away from it or be yanked over the side. Which is silly of course but it's pretty strong regardless, silly or not.
So I get some of that feeling when I'm on the upside of a bridge like the one spanning the Houston ship channel, and even on some of these massive highway flyovers built here in Austin these past fifteen years, way way above the freeway being looped over; I get edgy. Last year a guy on a motorcycle lost it on one of those things and smacked into the low wall and off of his bike he went and over the side, no doubt screeching.
When I'm going up one of those bridges it's like a quiet inward "oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck" but not an "OH FUCK! OH FUCK! OH FUCK!" sort of thing, more an uncapitalized inner experiential thing that I wouldn't really want you to know about, and wouldn't let you know about if I could avoid it, toss you a festive smile and cavalierly drive on my way, a devil-may-care glint in my eyes, an edge of fear in my heart ...
posted by dancestoblue at 8:38 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
So I get some of that feeling when I'm on the upside of a bridge like the one spanning the Houston ship channel, and even on some of these massive highway flyovers built here in Austin these past fifteen years, way way above the freeway being looped over; I get edgy. Last year a guy on a motorcycle lost it on one of those things and smacked into the low wall and off of his bike he went and over the side, no doubt screeching.
When I'm going up one of those bridges it's like a quiet inward "oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck" but not an "OH FUCK! OH FUCK! OH FUCK!" sort of thing, more an uncapitalized inner experiential thing that I wouldn't really want you to know about, and wouldn't let you know about if I could avoid it, toss you a festive smile and cavalierly drive on my way, a devil-may-care glint in my eyes, an edge of fear in my heart ...
posted by dancestoblue at 8:38 PM on May 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Well i would raise you all on the Causeway being flat with my occasional trip across the incredibly terrifying Huey P. Long bridge across the Mississippi River, but they done gone and spent half a billion dollars or so fixing that, so I can't complain about it no more. Fucked up my whole local bridge narrative they did.
True story: my first day of driver's ed, the instructor had me drive across the Huey P. That was the second time I had ever driven a car.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 9:14 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
True story: my first day of driver's ed, the instructor had me drive across the Huey P. That was the second time I had ever driven a car.
posted by A Bad Catholic at 9:14 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
What if
What if I'm not scared of bridges but just want to drive over one with a friend?
That would be nice too.
posted by ishrinkmajeans at 9:24 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
What if I'm not scared of bridges but just want to drive over one with a friend?
That would be nice too.
posted by ishrinkmajeans at 9:24 PM on May 26, 2013 [2 favorites]
The bridge between Chicago and Indiana (I-90? The Skyway) is a monstrous thing, soaring up into the air, with a good amount of the structure of the bridge up in the air above the road. The incline going up is so steep, it feels vaguely like the first hill on a roller coast, and you really can't see anything but road, bridge, and sky.
As a child, I was terrified of that bridge. I thought that the cars actually drove over the bridge, towers and all. I closed my eyes so tightly every time we went over that bridge that I didn't realize I was wrong until I actually had to drive across it myself. Utterly terrifying, even just driving on the road.
Of course, it doesn't help that my sister delighted in telling me about how the bridge was in such poor shape that a semi once fell through the bridge. I can't find anything online about it though. Still, nightmares.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:47 PM on May 26, 2013
As a child, I was terrified of that bridge. I thought that the cars actually drove over the bridge, towers and all. I closed my eyes so tightly every time we went over that bridge that I didn't realize I was wrong until I actually had to drive across it myself. Utterly terrifying, even just driving on the road.
Of course, it doesn't help that my sister delighted in telling me about how the bridge was in such poor shape that a semi once fell through the bridge. I can't find anything online about it though. Still, nightmares.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:47 PM on May 26, 2013
I love all bridges. Because they are not tunnels
posted by dame at 10:58 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by dame at 10:58 PM on May 26, 2013 [3 favorites]
Also I grew up with the Coronado Bridge, where the view is nothing but sea & sky.
posted by dame at 11:12 PM on May 26, 2013
posted by dame at 11:12 PM on May 26, 2013
The only bridge that gave me chills was the Pont de Normandie. It has a steep angle that gave me butterflies in the stomach. I'm not really afraid of heights, so I had no problems with the Millau Viaduct.
posted by Pendragon at 11:27 PM on May 26, 2013
posted by Pendragon at 11:27 PM on May 26, 2013
If the drive over this foggy strait in the Puget Sound isn't particularly scary to you, try walking over the narrow pedestrian lane at the edge of the bridge. That's where you'll find especially hair-raising views of the rushing water directly below.
It's scarier to drive across than to walk. The walkway is narrow, that's all, so you have to squeeze a little when someone wants to walk pass. The road is a different story entirely — almost too narrow for cars to pass each other (let alone trucks).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:51 PM on May 26, 2013
It's scarier to drive across than to walk. The walkway is narrow, that's all, so you have to squeeze a little when someone wants to walk pass. The road is a different story entirely — almost too narrow for cars to pass each other (let alone trucks).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:51 PM on May 26, 2013
a detour that can stretch a 19-minute jog into a three-quarter-hour ordeal.
This is a hilarious example of lying with the truth through careful word choices. Who knew that the difference between a "jog" and an "ordeal" was less than half an hour?
posted by dersins at 12:27 AM on May 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
This is a hilarious example of lying with the truth through careful word choices. Who knew that the difference between a "jog" and an "ordeal" was less than half an hour?
posted by dersins at 12:27 AM on May 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
"I am afraid of bridges. Sometimes I have to turn around when I'm driving towards one and my heart begins to pound. Last night at the bridge to Johnsburg I swerved down a dead end street. I sat there shaking in an empty lot full of broken glass and weeds. Then past me in the darkness ran four wild dogs leaping over abandoned tires high into the air. In the air..."
-- The Handsome Family, "In the Air".
posted by mwhybark at 12:32 AM on May 27, 2013
-- The Handsome Family, "In the Air".
posted by mwhybark at 12:32 AM on May 27, 2013
Urban legend had it that the original steel grates were inadvertently installed upside-down, giving drivers no apparent traction and making them feel like they were drifting in every direction and no direction simultaneously.
Steel grid decks generally do that due to the weird traction. Source: I live in Portland, and take the Hawthorne bridge regularly.
My scary bridges are the Sellwood and Ross Island bridges. The Sellwood is getting replaced so we can stop worrying about the giant cracks in it. The Ross Island was built in the same fashion as the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. There are no plans to replace it.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 1:36 AM on May 27, 2013
Steel grid decks generally do that due to the weird traction. Source: I live in Portland, and take the Hawthorne bridge regularly.
My scary bridges are the Sellwood and Ross Island bridges. The Sellwood is getting replaced so we can stop worrying about the giant cracks in it. The Ross Island was built in the same fashion as the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. There are no plans to replace it.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 1:36 AM on May 27, 2013
Damn. Never even thought about it.
I guess that's because I am old as dirt and have yet to fall through one. Interstate highways in the USA are built to exacting standards, including bridges, but early ones are at the end of their design lives in some cases. Consequences of a failure are high, quick detection of failures low if fate puts you in proximity to one at the wrong time. Crap shoot, it is, but I'll give 100:1 odds to anyone who wants to bet that you'll make it through the week OK vis a vis bridge failures. Lack of a seat belt while driving or driving drunk or driving while hands-free-talking-on-a-cellphone are a gazillion times riskier. How come there aren't mefi threads for that?
"I have an irrational fear of driving without my seat belt. Hope me." makes more sense than "I'm gonna drive into the abyss like Wiley Coyote when a bridge span collapses". It just so seldom happens. OTOH, this month we'll lose 3,000 people in cars, a lot of whom would walk away if a seat belt were strapped around them.
posted by FauxScot at 2:31 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
I guess that's because I am old as dirt and have yet to fall through one. Interstate highways in the USA are built to exacting standards, including bridges, but early ones are at the end of their design lives in some cases. Consequences of a failure are high, quick detection of failures low if fate puts you in proximity to one at the wrong time. Crap shoot, it is, but I'll give 100:1 odds to anyone who wants to bet that you'll make it through the week OK vis a vis bridge failures. Lack of a seat belt while driving or driving drunk or driving while hands-free-talking-on-a-cellphone are a gazillion times riskier. How come there aren't mefi threads for that?
"I have an irrational fear of driving without my seat belt. Hope me." makes more sense than "I'm gonna drive into the abyss like Wiley Coyote when a bridge span collapses". It just so seldom happens. OTOH, this month we'll lose 3,000 people in cars, a lot of whom would walk away if a seat belt were strapped around them.
posted by FauxScot at 2:31 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
As fate would have it, I just found this article which gives a list of 10 bridges to avoid in the US of A. Very convenient!
Here's another article on a bunch of USA bridges about to collapse if a single part fails.
posted by FauxScot at 2:36 AM on May 27, 2013
Here's another article on a bunch of USA bridges about to collapse if a single part fails.
posted by FauxScot at 2:36 AM on May 27, 2013
How very appropriate. About 3 months ago, my partner and I adopted a German Shepherd. During the course of his daily walks, I'd take him across a short road bridge (with adjoining footpath). No big deal, maybe 75m long, and maybe 6 or 7m high above a stream. Now he wasn't entirely happy about it, but he would cross it without too many hassles.
Until one day, he flat out refused to cross it anymore. Flopped down on his belly, tried to run in the opposite direction and looked at me with actual, real fear in his big brown eyes. Problem is, we had to cross it to get home, and I had to pick up the 30ish kg wuss and carry him across.
So now I know the word, and can tell everyone I have a gephyropobic dog.
posted by Legs11 at 3:00 AM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
Until one day, he flat out refused to cross it anymore. Flopped down on his belly, tried to run in the opposite direction and looked at me with actual, real fear in his big brown eyes. Problem is, we had to cross it to get home, and I had to pick up the 30ish kg wuss and carry him across.
So now I know the word, and can tell everyone I have a gephyropobic dog.
posted by Legs11 at 3:00 AM on May 27, 2013 [2 favorites]
The Mackinac Bridge has offered this service for free for a while now:
posted by creade at 3:32 AM on May 27, 2013
What if I am not comfortable about driving across the bridge?http://www.mackinacbridge.org/faq-17/Bridge+services/
The Mackinac Bridge Authority has a "Drivers Assistance Program" that provides drivers for those uncomfortable with driving across the Mackinac Bridge. If you are traveling northbound, there is a phone at the south end of the bridge. Instructions for using the phone are posted in the phone box. If you are southbound, just ask a fare collector for assistance. There is no additional fee for this service.
posted by creade at 3:32 AM on May 27, 2013
I can have serious issues with bridges while on foot, but never in the car - even the Forth Road Bridge, which is pretty damn high off the ground and has major structural problems.
I'm now genuinely wondering if this phobia is less prevalent around here, or people are just better at covering for it and making plausible excuses to go round by the Kincardine Bridge.
posted by Coobeastie at 4:07 AM on May 27, 2013
I'm now genuinely wondering if this phobia is less prevalent around here, or people are just better at covering for it and making plausible excuses to go round by the Kincardine Bridge.
posted by Coobeastie at 4:07 AM on May 27, 2013
For me it's sitting in stop-and-go traffic and feeling the bridge vibrate and sway, while I contemplate the discipline of engineering and dynamic force analysis.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:55 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:55 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Another problem that would be solved by flying-cars.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:26 AM on May 27, 2013
posted by blue_beetle at 5:26 AM on May 27, 2013
To his credit, Legs11, from his eye level the bridge looks a lot like a cage, and there's a lot of loud traffic noise and fast-moving machines he can hardly see on one side, and I'm sure with his very sensitive hearing it's extremely loud and harsh sounding with the concrete and metal frames. And on the other side there's basically nothing.
Sure, from your eye level, and with your life experience, it's not too objectionable. But for him it looks and sounds like hell on earth.
I don't blame him one iota for being afraid.
Can you take another route?
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:35 AM on May 27, 2013
Sure, from your eye level, and with your life experience, it's not too objectionable. But for him it looks and sounds like hell on earth.
I don't blame him one iota for being afraid.
Can you take another route?
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:35 AM on May 27, 2013
Thanks for posting this -- while queuing up fun songs to sing to while crossing gets me over the Chesapeake Bay bridge, I like knowing I have options.
After looking at the links above and doing some reading up, I realized the Chesapeake Bay bridge contains multiple scary elements+measurements that contribute to its freakiness over most of the aforementioned: its height over the water combined with length/long span over the water, pitch/angle, the fact that it curves somewhat so you can't just focus on straight road ahead of you, how narrow it is (8.5 m on the eastbound bridge, or 11.6 m westbound), and narrow-er it can feel in combination with span closures and lane reversal for traffic control, to add the joy of two-way traffic with no median, one lane apiece. In the sky.
And apparently when there's not moving to be afraid of, the beachgoer traffic is supposed to be super bad. So there really is something for everyone... :)
posted by NikitaNikita at 6:28 AM on May 27, 2013
After looking at the links above and doing some reading up, I realized the Chesapeake Bay bridge contains multiple scary elements+measurements that contribute to its freakiness over most of the aforementioned: its height over the water combined with length/long span over the water, pitch/angle, the fact that it curves somewhat so you can't just focus on straight road ahead of you, how narrow it is (8.5 m on the eastbound bridge, or 11.6 m westbound), and narrow-er it can feel in combination with span closures and lane reversal for traffic control, to add the joy of two-way traffic with no median, one lane apiece. In the sky.
And apparently when there's not moving to be afraid of, the beachgoer traffic is supposed to be super bad. So there really is something for everyone... :)
posted by NikitaNikita at 6:28 AM on May 27, 2013
When I was a kid, I experienced something like this. I'd get very nervous going across certain bridges. The Kosciuszko, and the 59th st. bridges were the worst. Suspension bridges and causeways were fine. I also had the same feeling on Ferris wheels - but only on the part of the ride where I'd be looking into the machinery. It was a weird thing and I outgrew it soon after I started driving myself.
posted by bashos_frog at 6:35 AM on May 27, 2013
posted by bashos_frog at 6:35 AM on May 27, 2013
The Storey Bridge in Brisbane, Australia always used to scare the crap out of me as a kid because it felt like we were driving through the bones of some giant dinosaur robot.
The day it actually, really scared me was when I was driving to work one morning during peak hour and due to a traffic jam I actually had to stop on it for about 5 minutes or so. The fucking thing sways in the breeze! This happened not too long after a terrible suspension bridge collapse in America so of course I was convinced I was going to die.
I was wrong but I still don't like it.
posted by h00py at 7:06 AM on May 27, 2013
The day it actually, really scared me was when I was driving to work one morning during peak hour and due to a traffic jam I actually had to stop on it for about 5 minutes or so. The fucking thing sways in the breeze! This happened not too long after a terrible suspension bridge collapse in America so of course I was convinced I was going to die.
I was wrong but I still don't like it.
posted by h00py at 7:06 AM on May 27, 2013
I'm terrified of driving over bridges. More specifically, bridges that go over water a decent height. Glad to see that charlie don't surf linked to the Sunshine Skyway. I couldn't quite believe that the scary bridge link included the Seven Mile Bridge in the keys but left out the Sunshine Skyway. The Sunshine Skyway includes four miles of low over the water bridge with a touch of super high super scary going over shark infested waters (they even advertise the skyway fishing pier as a place to go shark fishing... not helping!). The pictures do not do it justice. They make it look all pretty and show nothing of the sheer terror that consumes you as you cross. I'm sweaty palmed even thinking about it. I'd take a hundred miles of the Seven Mile Bridge if it would keep me off the Skyway.
posted by imbri at 7:13 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by imbri at 7:13 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Correction: I just went to the wikipedia page on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, it turns out I didn't cross it. I crossed another bridge over the Bay, the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge.
That doesn't actually go over the Bay; it goes over the Susquehanna River. The river is wide there; but for some perspective, the Bay Bridge is almost 5 miles long because that's one of the narrowest parts of the Bay.
posted by spaltavian at 7:16 AM on May 27, 2013
That doesn't actually go over the Bay; it goes over the Susquehanna River. The river is wide there; but for some perspective, the Bay Bridge is almost 5 miles long because that's one of the narrowest parts of the Bay.
posted by spaltavian at 7:16 AM on May 27, 2013
Aha! This picture captures some of the terror: Ooo ahh look at all the pretty water and boats and sea birds oh how I love living in Florida... this is awesome... holycrap! turn around turn around no way to turn around we're all going to die!
posted by imbri at 7:25 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by imbri at 7:25 AM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
The Confederation Bridge linking PEI to the rest of the world has ( or had) a similar program. I generally don't mind bridges, but that's one I wouldn't want to drive on a foggy night.
FTR, the Bear Mountain Bridge and the old Hancock-Waldo Bridge have both made me a little anxious over the years.
posted by pentagoet at 7:29 AM on May 27, 2013
FTR, the Bear Mountain Bridge and the old Hancock-Waldo Bridge have both made me a little anxious over the years.
posted by pentagoet at 7:29 AM on May 27, 2013
The bridge that most gave me the "NOPENOPENOPE" was the old Grand Ave bridge in St. Louis. It was fairly flat and straight, but it was above a Metrolink station (one of the busiest in the city during weekdays), and the sidewalks were so narrow you had to flatten yourself to one side of the low concrete barrier when passing fellow pedestrians.
There were ACTUAL FACTUAL GAPPING HOLES in the sidewalks-- and the steel plates connecting the sidewalk bridge to the ground sidewalk were rusted invitations to step through them to major lockjaw. Not to mention that the south sidewalk had a crosswalk over a major exit ramp of the old highway 64... which was curved so sharply it's a wonder there weren't more car-pedestrian accidents. (The speed limit on that curved ramp? 20 MPH. On a highway which people routinely went 70.)
I was so happy when they began construction on the new one.
posted by lineofsight at 7:56 AM on May 27, 2013
There were ACTUAL FACTUAL GAPPING HOLES in the sidewalks-- and the steel plates connecting the sidewalk bridge to the ground sidewalk were rusted invitations to step through them to major lockjaw. Not to mention that the south sidewalk had a crosswalk over a major exit ramp of the old highway 64... which was curved so sharply it's a wonder there weren't more car-pedestrian accidents. (The speed limit on that curved ramp? 20 MPH. On a highway which people routinely went 70.)
I was so happy when they began construction on the new one.
posted by lineofsight at 7:56 AM on May 27, 2013
My worst bridge experience came on a bicycle trip up the Oregon coast when we crossed the 4 mile Astoria-Megler bridge over the mouth of the Columbia during a windstorm.
The bridge is narrow, with only one lane of traffic in either direction and no walkway, low railings, long steep sections (going down the other side felt almost suicidal), and a very small space between the lane edge and the railing which also contains bicycle-unfriendly vents in places (I don't remember those, but they're in the linked picture).
My girlfriend was so terrified that, whenever she glanced back at me it looked like her eyes were trying to roll back in her head.
After we got across, it took about an hour of milling around and hugging before we could get back on the bikes again.
posted by jamjam at 10:25 AM on May 27, 2013
The bridge is narrow, with only one lane of traffic in either direction and no walkway, low railings, long steep sections (going down the other side felt almost suicidal), and a very small space between the lane edge and the railing which also contains bicycle-unfriendly vents in places (I don't remember those, but they're in the linked picture).
My girlfriend was so terrified that, whenever she glanced back at me it looked like her eyes were trying to roll back in her head.
After we got across, it took about an hour of milling around and hugging before we could get back on the bikes again.
posted by jamjam at 10:25 AM on May 27, 2013
I have no bridge phobia (yay), but every time I have go to on the SF Bay Bridge--y'know, the one that caved in during the earthquake--I do a little "please, dear god, don't have an earthquake hit while I'm on here, again."
Many yonks ago, I read some article in Reader's Digest about bridge phobia and hoo boy, did that give me the chills.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:25 AM on May 27, 2013
Many yonks ago, I read some article in Reader's Digest about bridge phobia and hoo boy, did that give me the chills.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:25 AM on May 27, 2013
Somebody made a video of my old bridge fear. Ah the old Cooper River Bridge, gone now and unlamented. It was terrifying. I bet every travel / scare factor writer in the US poured out a 40 when they tore it down; there were 50 years or so of articles about the 10 deadliest bridges in the US prominently featuring that bridge. I'm amazed they haven't just retired the genre now it's gone.
I went under it in a boat once in the mid 80s. The pilings were all eaten away, more holes and barnacles than concrete. There was a lot of talk about repairing it that year but instead they painted it, which kept it going for twenty more years. And yet I hear some people are afraid of the new bridge.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:49 PM on May 27, 2013
I went under it in a boat once in the mid 80s. The pilings were all eaten away, more holes and barnacles than concrete. There was a lot of talk about repairing it that year but instead they painted it, which kept it going for twenty more years. And yet I hear some people are afraid of the new bridge.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:49 PM on May 27, 2013
> Can you take another route? (seanmpuckett)
Yeah, I can and do avoid the bridge now, it just cuts down my options for varying his exercise route. No great hardship though.
And hoopy, I guess you haven't done the Story Bridge Climb then? The sway feels positively huge from the top of the uprights.
posted by Legs11 at 1:20 PM on May 27, 2013
Yeah, I can and do avoid the bridge now, it just cuts down my options for varying his exercise route. No great hardship though.
And hoopy, I guess you haven't done the Story Bridge Climb then? The sway feels positively huge from the top of the uprights.
posted by Legs11 at 1:20 PM on May 27, 2013
I have no bridge phobia (yay), but every time I have go to on the SF Bay Bridge--y'know, the one that caved in during the earthquake--I do a little "please, dear god, don't have an earthquake hit while I'm on here, again."
I used to do the same thing driving on the Alaska Way Viaduct in Seattle. It had a really good chance of pancaking during an earthquake- after the Feb 2001 earthquake, which really shook it up, I used to try to just hold my breath and wish very hard for NO EARTHQUAKE during the 2 minutes it took to drive.
posted by lyra4 at 2:41 PM on May 27, 2013
I used to do the same thing driving on the Alaska Way Viaduct in Seattle. It had a really good chance of pancaking during an earthquake- after the Feb 2001 earthquake, which really shook it up, I used to try to just hold my breath and wish very hard for NO EARTHQUAKE during the 2 minutes it took to drive.
posted by lyra4 at 2:41 PM on May 27, 2013
I was driving in Delaware with my mom when we came upon this lovely wonder. The side walls are low, there is one lane in each direction and the east bound approach is a long curve. Mom got about a third of the way up and then couldn't go any further and wouldn't let me take the wheel.
She backed down slowly foot by foot. It is not a heavily trafficked bridge so she'd just wait while the random car came, wave it around and continue backing up.
We finally got down and I went back a couple of months later on my own and made it over, turned around and came back. The west bound approach is much easier.
posted by jaimystery at 4:31 PM on May 27, 2013
She backed down slowly foot by foot. It is not a heavily trafficked bridge so she'd just wait while the random car came, wave it around and continue backing up.
We finally got down and I went back a couple of months later on my own and made it over, turned around and came back. The west bound approach is much easier.
posted by jaimystery at 4:31 PM on May 27, 2013
I tend to tie in gephyrophobia with acrophobia, since I've had both, and much worse as a child than it is now (although I still occasionally get twinges of both). In both cases, it's a fear of falling, and with bridges it's both the idea that I could go over the side and that the bridge itself could suddenly collapse. I sort of grew out of it and sort of challenged myself to deal with it by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, both ways, when I visited SF, and sort of just haven't had to deal with it much because I don't drive across very long and steep bridges very often (I still remember the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which I went over only once, when I was driving out of Brooklyn).
In fact, there was one incident recently when I probably should have taken more heed when approaching a bridge, and ignored real danger in the process. I was riding my bike across the river, and remembered taking a bridge several years ago, and it not being that big of a deal. I approach the bridge... and all of a sudden, it seems really steep, and there doesn't seem to be that much of a shoulder. Bah, I told myself, I'll be fine, it's just a touch of the old phobia again. So, I nut up and start riding up the bridge. I'm a fair amount of the way up when I realize that, in fact, there's no shoulder--there's the car lane (on which cars are racing past without slowing down near me), a few inches (just enough to set my wheels on, really), and... nothing but a Jersey barrier between me and the river. This was not how I'd remembered it, and I thought about turning around, but I'd have to cross four lanes of traffic and go back down that steep slope. So, I went ahead, thinking that at any second an extra-long side mirror mount was going to knock me over the barrier and into the water. It turns out that the bridge that I had been over before was several blocks up the river, and somehow I'd completely gotten the two mixed up in the interim.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:35 PM on May 27, 2013
In fact, there was one incident recently when I probably should have taken more heed when approaching a bridge, and ignored real danger in the process. I was riding my bike across the river, and remembered taking a bridge several years ago, and it not being that big of a deal. I approach the bridge... and all of a sudden, it seems really steep, and there doesn't seem to be that much of a shoulder. Bah, I told myself, I'll be fine, it's just a touch of the old phobia again. So, I nut up and start riding up the bridge. I'm a fair amount of the way up when I realize that, in fact, there's no shoulder--there's the car lane (on which cars are racing past without slowing down near me), a few inches (just enough to set my wheels on, really), and... nothing but a Jersey barrier between me and the river. This was not how I'd remembered it, and I thought about turning around, but I'd have to cross four lanes of traffic and go back down that steep slope. So, I went ahead, thinking that at any second an extra-long side mirror mount was going to knock me over the barrier and into the water. It turns out that the bridge that I had been over before was several blocks up the river, and somehow I'd completely gotten the two mixed up in the interim.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:35 PM on May 27, 2013
Ooo ahh look at all the pretty water and boats and sea birds oh how I love living in Florida... this is awesome... holycrap! turn around turn around no way to turn around we're all going to die!
LOL I refuse to call it the Sunshine Skyway because that makes it sound pleasant. It isn't the least bit pleasant. It isn't sunshiny except in the sense of Icarus flying too close to the sun, and I do not want to go on a skyway that goes way up into the sky and then plummet back to earth.
Here's a sped up video of driving over the bridge. The wide angle lens does not adequately convey the experience. I found some photographs that more accurately capture the feeling of crossing this bridge.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:41 PM on May 27, 2013
LOL I refuse to call it the Sunshine Skyway because that makes it sound pleasant. It isn't the least bit pleasant. It isn't sunshiny except in the sense of Icarus flying too close to the sun, and I do not want to go on a skyway that goes way up into the sky and then plummet back to earth.
Here's a sped up video of driving over the bridge. The wide angle lens does not adequately convey the experience. I found some photographs that more accurately capture the feeling of crossing this bridge.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:41 PM on May 27, 2013
I'm okay with bridges, but Zeus save me from underwater tunnels. I shudder at the thought. And I'm with dame re: the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. It seems like you go up and up and up at a very steep angle. Actually, I think driving over it is what cured me of ever having a problem with bridges.
posted by deborah at 6:50 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by deborah at 6:50 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
I seem to remember the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor was one of those big ones that gave me a bit of vertigo....
But my favorite bridge game to play is while walking. There is a bridge near me that is a completely standard steel truss bridge in pretty much all ways, except that the sidewalk is on the outside of it. So when you are about a third of the way across, you can sort of close one eye and pretend the car part isn't there, and you are just on a 5 foot wide bridge. VOMIT!
And yes, tunnels are worse.
posted by gjc at 7:48 PM on May 27, 2013
But my favorite bridge game to play is while walking. There is a bridge near me that is a completely standard steel truss bridge in pretty much all ways, except that the sidewalk is on the outside of it. So when you are about a third of the way across, you can sort of close one eye and pretend the car part isn't there, and you are just on a 5 foot wide bridge. VOMIT!
And yes, tunnels are worse.
posted by gjc at 7:48 PM on May 27, 2013
Ah the old Cooper River Bridge...
I was going to mention that one earlier today but didn't have time. For those who never traveled to Charleston before 2005, the old Cooper River Bridge was a monstrosity. It was narrow, ancient, and decrepit, and as the picture shows had not one but two highly elevated sections. It looked like a house of cards where the failure of any single piece of steel would bring the whole thing down. Apparently that is not too far from the truth. The 8 ton/axle weight limit did not help ease fears, nor did the measly 3-foot high guardrail that seemed to be mere inches from the road. I vividly remember a visit to Charleston with my first ex-wife ca. 1990 when coming back across the bridge traffic stopped completely because of construction and/or an accident. Of course we were at the apex of the Town Creek portion of the bridge. I don't remember how long we were stopped, but people not only turned off their engines but got out and walked around. I tried that, but that just allowed me to see the holes in the decking, with the water far below. I don't consider myself a gephyrophobe, but that experience nearly made me one.
Unless I missed it, I am surprised no one has yet brought up the practice of rolling your windows down when driving across bridges. I can think of at least two people off the top of my head who do that, even in nasty weather, "for safety".
posted by TedW at 8:21 PM on May 27, 2013
I was going to mention that one earlier today but didn't have time. For those who never traveled to Charleston before 2005, the old Cooper River Bridge was a monstrosity. It was narrow, ancient, and decrepit, and as the picture shows had not one but two highly elevated sections. It looked like a house of cards where the failure of any single piece of steel would bring the whole thing down. Apparently that is not too far from the truth. The 8 ton/axle weight limit did not help ease fears, nor did the measly 3-foot high guardrail that seemed to be mere inches from the road. I vividly remember a visit to Charleston with my first ex-wife ca. 1990 when coming back across the bridge traffic stopped completely because of construction and/or an accident. Of course we were at the apex of the Town Creek portion of the bridge. I don't remember how long we were stopped, but people not only turned off their engines but got out and walked around. I tried that, but that just allowed me to see the holes in the decking, with the water far below. I don't consider myself a gephyrophobe, but that experience nearly made me one.
Unless I missed it, I am surprised no one has yet brought up the practice of rolling your windows down when driving across bridges. I can think of at least two people off the top of my head who do that, even in nasty weather, "for safety".
posted by TedW at 8:21 PM on May 27, 2013
TedW: I crack my windows when going over bridge (maybe an inch - not all the way). The idea is to let water enter the car (slightly) more quickly so that you can open the doors and exit the vehicle as soon as possible. Sure, the chance of surviving a 400+ foot fall from the Skyway bridge is pretty much non-existant, but if it makes me even slightly less anxious, then it does makes me a better/safer driver. I'm all for silly tricks & superstitions in times of fear & panic.
posted by imbri at 4:57 AM on May 28, 2013
posted by imbri at 4:57 AM on May 28, 2013
Back when I was younger, lighter, and when the lower speed limits and a lack of sense on my part meant that I believed it to be a perfectly reasonable thing to ride a Vespa P200E from Maryland to places like Ocean City, Richmond, and NYC, I had a thing about bridges, but it wasn't so much fear as a realization that a big guy on a bike that weighs less than he does is prone to some unique risks in bridge transit.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, for example, wasn't bothersome so much because it's long or tall, but rather because it used to be made almost entirely of metal grating, and if you think a car handles metal grating oddly, you really ought to try it on a tall, lightweight vehicle with ten inch wheels. You just had to surrender to the superior flow of the clockwork tao as you'd crest that bridge, with your wheels seemingly replaced by a tangle of irritable snakes, using the secret of motorcycling that you have to believe everything will be okay and your body will make it so. Still, there was something awkward about essentially riding on a greasy window screen through which you can see the water a long, long way down below.
The bridges that really wracked the nerves, though, were the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge on 301, crossing the Potomac into Virginia and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on I-95, crossing the Susquehanna on the way to Northern destinations.
The Nice Bridge, and it is a rather nice bridge, with a giant plant with devil's horns on the Maryland side and a giant state with devil's attitudes on the other, is generally navigable, albeit when you're relaxed and skilled in the art of dealing with strong, constant winds. It doesn't help that the barrier on the side is at about ass level, a fact that often occurs when a sudden gust hits and you realize that one bump and you'd go straight over. Still, the view is spectacular, and it's a good test of one's ability to find a peaceful spot within himself.
The Tydings Bridge, on the other hand? What a dick.
For starters, it's roughly eleven miles in the air over the tiny trace of the river below. It is also, if you're crossing it from the South, famous for a little quirk in how the wind works there. The highway is shielded by this big bluff until just before you hit the bridge, and you're all well and good until, say, you and your tiny Vespa emerge from that sheltered spot at approximately fifty-nine miles an hour.
I was not an experienced rider the first time I made this passage, and it showed.
I was tootling along, or to be more precise, was screaming along flat-out at wide-open-throttle, which you generally do in a Vespa if you're hoping to maintain highway speeds, and I was feeling flush and perky and was looking forward to spending a couple days in New York buying import vinyl and discount porn and eating myself ill on pizza. The Vespa was an unfamiliar thing on the road back in '91, particularly on the highways, so I got a lot of looks, a few cries of "get off the road," and the occasional half-eaten apple flung my way, but life is like this if you venture out at all.
I was contented in the shadow of the bluff, hit the bridge, and the jet-blast of that wind grabbed me by the armpit hair and gave me a nice wild yank.
These days, I know how to deal. What you don't do is try to compensate.
I tried to compensate.
This sent me flinging across the highway and I whumped sidelong into the barrier with an impressive fantail of sparks, but stayed upright. That inspired me to overcompensate in the other direction and I hurtled to the other side of the highway, aided by the everyday gale, neatly avoided a truck, felt momentarily skilled, and was rewarded for this hubris by the wind letting up just enough for my overcompensation to send me into that barrier, albeit with less sparks. I slowed down, chugged across the bridge with a line of irritated drivers building behind me, pulled over, turned off the bike, and sat for a while.
Made it to the big city just fine, but I took the old route back and crossed Conowingo Dam instead of that damn bridge.
I stayed ambitious for a while, but my scooter was eventually stolen by one of the Washington Redskins and I'd since discovered Citroens, so I took a long, long break in my two-wheeled career. By the time I returned to the fold with a Stella that was my beat-up old Vespa's dark twin, the speed limits had all changed and highway travel was no longer in the cards, but I suspect that at my age, I'd probably be more inclined to take the slow routes and skip the big bridges. Sucks when your sense of immortality expires, alas.
posted by sonascope at 8:23 AM on May 28, 2013 [3 favorites]
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, for example, wasn't bothersome so much because it's long or tall, but rather because it used to be made almost entirely of metal grating, and if you think a car handles metal grating oddly, you really ought to try it on a tall, lightweight vehicle with ten inch wheels. You just had to surrender to the superior flow of the clockwork tao as you'd crest that bridge, with your wheels seemingly replaced by a tangle of irritable snakes, using the secret of motorcycling that you have to believe everything will be okay and your body will make it so. Still, there was something awkward about essentially riding on a greasy window screen through which you can see the water a long, long way down below.
The bridges that really wracked the nerves, though, were the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge on 301, crossing the Potomac into Virginia and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on I-95, crossing the Susquehanna on the way to Northern destinations.
The Nice Bridge, and it is a rather nice bridge, with a giant plant with devil's horns on the Maryland side and a giant state with devil's attitudes on the other, is generally navigable, albeit when you're relaxed and skilled in the art of dealing with strong, constant winds. It doesn't help that the barrier on the side is at about ass level, a fact that often occurs when a sudden gust hits and you realize that one bump and you'd go straight over. Still, the view is spectacular, and it's a good test of one's ability to find a peaceful spot within himself.
The Tydings Bridge, on the other hand? What a dick.
For starters, it's roughly eleven miles in the air over the tiny trace of the river below. It is also, if you're crossing it from the South, famous for a little quirk in how the wind works there. The highway is shielded by this big bluff until just before you hit the bridge, and you're all well and good until, say, you and your tiny Vespa emerge from that sheltered spot at approximately fifty-nine miles an hour.
I was not an experienced rider the first time I made this passage, and it showed.
I was tootling along, or to be more precise, was screaming along flat-out at wide-open-throttle, which you generally do in a Vespa if you're hoping to maintain highway speeds, and I was feeling flush and perky and was looking forward to spending a couple days in New York buying import vinyl and discount porn and eating myself ill on pizza. The Vespa was an unfamiliar thing on the road back in '91, particularly on the highways, so I got a lot of looks, a few cries of "get off the road," and the occasional half-eaten apple flung my way, but life is like this if you venture out at all.
I was contented in the shadow of the bluff, hit the bridge, and the jet-blast of that wind grabbed me by the armpit hair and gave me a nice wild yank.
These days, I know how to deal. What you don't do is try to compensate.
I tried to compensate.
This sent me flinging across the highway and I whumped sidelong into the barrier with an impressive fantail of sparks, but stayed upright. That inspired me to overcompensate in the other direction and I hurtled to the other side of the highway, aided by the everyday gale, neatly avoided a truck, felt momentarily skilled, and was rewarded for this hubris by the wind letting up just enough for my overcompensation to send me into that barrier, albeit with less sparks. I slowed down, chugged across the bridge with a line of irritated drivers building behind me, pulled over, turned off the bike, and sat for a while.
Made it to the big city just fine, but I took the old route back and crossed Conowingo Dam instead of that damn bridge.
I stayed ambitious for a while, but my scooter was eventually stolen by one of the Washington Redskins and I'd since discovered Citroens, so I took a long, long break in my two-wheeled career. By the time I returned to the fold with a Stella that was my beat-up old Vespa's dark twin, the speed limits had all changed and highway travel was no longer in the cards, but I suspect that at my age, I'd probably be more inclined to take the slow routes and skip the big bridges. Sucks when your sense of immortality expires, alas.
posted by sonascope at 8:23 AM on May 28, 2013 [3 favorites]
The only thing worse (for me) than driving on a bridge is driving on a bridge while it is being repaired.
I really, really, really hate bridges.
posted by cooker girl at 8:30 AM on May 28, 2013
I really, really, really hate bridges.
posted by cooker girl at 8:30 AM on May 28, 2013
If you don't like driving on bridges while they're being repaired, stay far away from the 78 bridge that leads to the NJ Turnpike Hudson County extension. The last 3 years they've been ripping up the bridge deck 1/3 at a time and entirely replacing it. Such a pain in the neck, especially when they have it merging down to 1 lane. If there is one thing NJ drivers can not do, it's merge from about 6 lanes to 1 with out multi mile long backups and drama.
posted by lyra4 at 9:49 AM on May 28, 2013
posted by lyra4 at 9:49 AM on May 28, 2013
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