Five years ago on October 6th the first span of the old Liberty Memorial Bridge came down. Taking down this landmark was particularly tricky on the Mandan side, because the old and new bridges were so close together. Drop the old one incorrectly, and we’d be picking pieces of TWO bridges out of the Big Muddy! Nobody wanted that.
The west span came down in a blaze of glory, being cut into pieces by shaped charges and dropped into the drink in 26 large chunks (plus assorted debris).
I staked out a place on the fake riverboat at Steamboat Park early that morning. At 7:30 people were already parked and waiting. I got a great spot, met lots of really neat people, and got some great photos and video. Click below to watch the big bang, both in real-time and slow motion. You’ll hear my camera shutter going mad in the background.
Notice how the camera shook from the shock wave. I don’t think anybody, myself included, expected such an enormous BOOM from those charges!
This was the debris pile that was removed piece by piece. The concrete piers were detonated and removed separately later on while workers prepared to detonate the remaining spans later in October.
Getting photos of the remaining spans’ detonation was more difficult. I hiked a long ways from the Mandan side, humping some very heavy gear all down the Lewis & Clark walking trail and parking on a sandbar beneath the NP railroad brdige.
Initially here was a lot of confusion among spectators as to why the middle span came down in one giant piece. I’ll tell you what the explosives expert of the demolition crew told me. Before they install their shape charges, they cut the bolts anchoring the bridge spans to the pilings. They can’t be cutting them with a grinder and sending sparks all over their explosives once they’ve been placed, after all. They had the east span rigged as well as the bottom of the middle span, but then the winds came up. They didn’t want to risk their guys being on the top of the middle span if the wind blew it over, so they opted to drop it and finish cutting it on the ground with torches. Notice that in the days before the demolition, they pushed rocks and dirt out below the bridge. That allows the crews to have land on which to salvage the steel, much easier than hunting around the water.
Notice the piece on the right hand side, the top of the pier that underwent repairs in an attempt to help the old bridge limp along. The repaired areas served their purposes, keeping the old bridge in operation until the crews were ready to take ‘er down.
How about those jaws? This machine reminds me of that James Bond villain. This guy’s got a pretty fun job, I bet. Chewin’ up steel. I can see how a feller could derive a great deal of satisfaction from it.
Nobody was more devastated than the local pigeon population; they were violently deprived of their perching, nesting, and pooping grounds! They hung around the concrete for a while until that, too was demolished.
I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that the last vehicle to cross the Liberty Memorial Bridge before its official closing was a motorcycle: yours truly.
Coolest souvenirs of the day: these are pieces of shrapnel from the shaped charges that brought down the mighty Memorial Bridge. I got them from the demolition crew that was doing the aforementioned cleanup. They appear to be copper, and I guess they flew away from the detonation at an extremely high rate of speed. Thankfully these two managed to land in my hands. I’ll keep them forever as a souvenir of the old humming bridge.
The Democrats have not passed a budget, something they’re required to do by the Constitution of the United States, in YEARS. Rather than have their spending actually show up on a piece of paper, they’ve relied on “continuing resolutions” to break the law and borrow more money from China. This is not only unsustainable, but it’s illegal – and it’s the REAL reason for the government shutdown right now.
Heidi Heitkamp, self-proclaimed “Independent Voice™ for North Dakota”, is in lockstep with her political party. Given the fact that she has aligned herself with them, and not the majority of her constituents, I decided to play in Photoshop a little bit.
Click on the image for a full size version. Please feel free to download and share. Have a good weekend!
A friend of mine who works nearby called me this morning to tell me that a moose had decided to visit. It later walked across Century Avenue, deciding to hang out and enjoy the nice wetland area on the corner of 19th Street. After a taco lunch with some new friends I decided to stop by.
While making some small talk with a patrol officer, animal control officer, and game & fish officer I was able to grab a couple of shots while keeping my distance. The beast was having a nice lunch and didn’t seem to care that he was about to become a spectacle.
About the time that someone remarked that they figured he was about to move on, the moose showed us how much we know about moose…mooses…meese…whatever. He dropped to his knees and eventually settled down to chill and digest his lunch.
That’s when the circus came to town. Soon there were gapers everywhere. I even saw some absolute idiot dash across 19th street, tugging along two little girls who couldn’t be older than 5, through 35mph traffic while all the drivers were paying attention to the moose and not potential jaywalkers. While the moose couldn’t have cared less, the police were notably agitated…and rightly so.
Not wanting to be lumped in with the developing crowd, I left. I’d already gotten some satisfying shots, managed to stay out of everyone’s way, and didn’t want to be part of the officers’ consternation.
On my way home from work I decided to swing by the area and see if they’d managed to bring their plan of walking the moose southward to the Hay Creek area to fruition. They’d just begun. I kept ample distance due to the wonder of telephoto lenses, snapped one shot, and again left as quickly as I’d come.
I presume that by this time the moose has meandered southward. In the mean time, we North Dakotans will wait for the next spectacle at which to gawk en masse. It’s something we’re really good at, even if we feel somewhat silly afterwards. Maybe next someone will spot a flying squirrel!
I admit it: I’m often way too busy to attend the various board, commission, and committee meetings that take place as the gears of our local government grind away. If nobody attends, though, those gears threaten to grind away at our liberty. Who then do we blame? I’ve come to the conclusion that we have the government we deserve.
Case in point: last night’s Burleigh County Commission meeting on adopting a Home Rule Charter. I tentatively agree that we need a new jail, although I’m intrigued by others’ opinions that many are jailed unnecessarily while awaiting trial or detox and that rehabilitation of convicted criminals here is not proportional to incarceration. As we plod ahead toward building a costly new correctional facility, the best way to do it is with a home rule charter and temporary sales tax (yeah, I know).
A group of people are going about the process of designing that charter, and a meeting last night was held for public information and comment. The room was nearly empty.
When sales taxes in Burleigh County increase by a half percent, will you notice? If so, will you be upset? If you’re upset, do you know why? If you know why, is it because you disagree with the idea of funding the jail with sales tax instead of property tax? Unless the answer to ALL of the above questions is YES, please do us a favor and shut up…unless you’ve actually attended any of these meetings and given your input.
By the way, despite hundreds of millions of dollars of ill-conceived “shell game” property tax buy-downs by the state legislature, last night the Commission voted to raise your taxes again. I had to leave before that portion of the meeting, unfortunately, but I did watch the feed live online. You can do so on the Dakota Media Access website.
I know we’re all busy…heck, I rarely find time to get to one of these meetings. I do, however, try to stay on top of issues that are important to me and make arrangements to attend those. When I do, I try to arrive with a well informed and thoroughly pondered opinion and a willingness to walk to the podium and make it known if I think it will contribute to the discussion. I wish I could make them all, but we’re understandably busy.
Busy or not, these commissions meet and make decisions that affect your daily life, your liberty, your property, and your prosperity. “I was busy” is of little consolation when you find yourself on the wrong end of some board’s policy decision…so stay informed, get involved when you can, and let’s hold our local government accountable.
I had the opportunity to go to the state capitol building today, and after accomplishing my errands I took a quick zip to the top observation floor and also down to the Memorial Hall. Here are a couple of things I noted:
Among the depictions in the brass on the elevator doors is a depiction of a more hostile time. It’s interesting to look at the brass in the elevator areas as well as the revolving doors in the Memorial Hall and note some of the figures depicted thereon.
Uh-oh. Notice that patch of yellow? The leaves are changing, and they’re going to do so quickly. Get those cameras ready!
I used the iPhone’s panoramic feature to do a quick pan of the Memorial Hall. Click on this image for a larger version. This is a great feature that came out with the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. I’m not about to upgrade to iOS 7 unless I absolutely have to.
I used to run around the capitol with my little guys a lot, but it’s been quite some time since we’ve been able to do so. I enjoy it as much as they do, and I suspect that there are many who share the same fondness and memories about this historic building. When’s the last time you paid it a visit?
This has been an incredibly busy year, both with work and with being husband and Daddy. I did take one of my cameras with to Papa’s Pumpkin Patch this past weekend to accompany my boys, and I did get a couple of decent zip-line photos, but for the most part it was unremarkable photographically. I was just following my little dudes around and letting them enjoy the day and the amazing autumn world the PPP folks have assembled once again this year.
I did hit a milestone, on this particular camera I crossed the 28,000 photo mark. That’s what’s pictured above. While not a remarkable photo, it did what I wanted for memory’s sake: show my little dudes atop a large pyramid of bales with blue sky and a little bit of green leaves in the background. That’ll work.
If you haven’t gone to the Patch yet, make sure you do so before it’s too late! You can check out their schedule and other information at www.papaspumpkinpatch.com – they even post weather updates there so you can find out if they’ve closed due to rain or other factors. They also have a Facebook Page if you’re into that sort of thing. Don’t let it be one of those things you plan to do but then never accomplish before the season suddenly passes you by!
Those who know me well know that I’m very fond of birds. Above is my little lovebird, Scooter, who sadly is no longer with us. Over the years of being his best friend, I was able to develop quite a rapport with the little guy. One example of that was being able to coax him into showing off his feathers. One way was by asking him to “get fluffy”, at which point he would fluff up his feathers and stick his breast out proudly. The other was by showing me his wings as he’s doing in the photo above.
I came across this photo from a Dakota Zoo photo contest a while back, and it brought to mind the “conversation” I had with this sandhill crane. My boys know this as the “pecking” bird for reasons that should be self-evident from the nom de guerre which they assigned to him, and I’ve always known this to be a particularly cranky bird. Well, one day I visited the zoo on my lunch break in an effort to photograph this challenging subject. After what seemed like twenty minutes of talking to him, he suddenly began to show off his wings. As I encouraged him, he finally struck a pose that was a shoo-in for the photo contest.
Then I spotted this photo, from the very first year I got my first digital SLR camera. I was poking around on the sandbar beneath the old Liberty Memorial Bridge when I spotted a sandpiper wandering around nearby, keeping his distance and eyeballing me. I began to talk to him since there was no one else around and I didn’t see anything else worth photographing. I stayed in one spot for a while, looking around and talking to the bird, when suddenly he began to stretch out a wing. He didn’t take his eye off me, of course, but he spent the next several minutes stretching out those feathers.
Finally, we have the trifecta. I took another lunch break to head to the lake at the Game & Fish office east of town, the large OWLS area which is always promising as a photo spot. This time around I spotted three geese who were apparently happy to see me. Not only did they let me walk right up to them, but they all began to vogue in front of me for the next several minutes. I started chatting ’em up for a while in the hopes of keeping the mood light, and they kept up the act for a while until apparently we all thought it was played out and we parted ways.
I’m not claiming any sort of supernatural gift or anything, but when I consider all these instances it looks like I have a knack with winged creatures. Even more likely is dumb luck, but I’ll take it. I love birds, and when I can get them to relax around me and even show off a little I’m absolutely thrilled. I’m sure the fact that I egg ’em on so much (see what I did there?) once they start to show their feathers helps get them into the act, and I’m glad I have a camera to catch them hamming it up.
It’s been long overdue, so I’m posting few photos I took at the North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Service back on May 15th. The memorial is located east of the Judicial Wing of the capitol, and the area is marked off and reserved for this service once a year.
The honor guard stands by. Representatives from various law enforcement agencies around the state make up this team.
As Attorney General, Wayne Stenehjem is the state’s senior law enforcement official. Here he gives his remarks. Also speaking were Governor Dalrymple, Chief Justice Vandewalle, Chaplain Dan Sweeney, and Sheriff Pat Heinert.
The flags returned to full-staff.
Salute by the honor guard. Very loud, very striking…and very challenging for a photographer, as the smoke of the first shot or two limits available chances for a photo.
A hard hymn to listen to; the bagpipes have a certain connotation all their own that remind us why we’re present on this day.
The wreath placed at the memorial at the conclusion of the service. Thankfully this year there were no additional names to add to the wall; however, as a shameless cheerleader for local law enforcement, I know it’s still important to pause and reflect upon the risks our state’s officers take in the service of protecting their fellow North Dakotans.
I wasn’t aware that porcupines did this, but when they do I’m glad I have a camera handy. If I had a nice branch to cling to right now, I think I’d do the same. He sure does look comfortable! He was gracious enough to let me snap away while he settled in for an afternoon snooze.
Granted, I don’t have the claws that this critter does…so maybe dozing off in a tree would be a bad idea. I tried to cling to my pillow with the tenacity of a clawed beast, but unfortunately duty calls and I have to get the day started.
After our camera club’s meeting this morning I decided to poke around to find a photo that would benefit from the gloomy day. I didn’t have to look far, as I soon spotted these flowers left at the Global War on Terrorism Memorial over at Fraine Barracks.
Somber, cloudy days are often good time for reflection; the rain and bleak skies just seem to set the mood perfectly. On such a day, should one be at a loss for something to ponder, consider those who have sacrificed their lives for our country.
After our camera club’s meeting this morning I decided to poke around to find a photo that would benefit from the gloomy day. I didn’t have to look far, as I soon spotted these flowers left at the Global War on Terrorism Memorial over at Fraine Barracks.