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Zo Goes To Pennsylvania; Labor Day Weekend 2005
Topic Started: Sep 9 2005, 11:19 PM (233 Views)
The Great Zo
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Harvesting Mole Shreve
PICTURE POST #1
LABOR DAY 2005 - PENNSYLVANIA TRIP
Set 1 of 3 - The Maumee River Crossing
Friday, September 2, 2005


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At the start of the trip, I made a couple of posts on XP while leaving my house (thanks to my wireless signal). I was granted the front seat so I could take pictures of the Maumee River Crossing bridge project. I had not been through there in daylight since a full year ago. Obviously, progress has come far since then.

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This picture is just entering I-280 heading south off of I-75. This area was renovated a while ago, and finished up fairly recently, with three full lanes through a new road structure. The brunt of the project is still ahead.

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Here's the main "turn off" onto the "old" (and temporary) roadway under the project. When it's complete, we'll actually be driving up the structure on the right, as it is part of the bridge. Another large portion of the project is on the left. BONUS: For a picture of what this segment looked like in 2004, click here: http://www.rushmessageboard.com/forums/cp/...-1095808274.jpg

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Here's a main part of what will be the northbound lanes once the project is complete. The machinery they are using to build it (the dark red thing) is absolutely huge, and hard to fathom.

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The current roadway snakes its way through the pillars of the project, between two raised roadway segments. This picture is from the "lowest" point underneath all the new construction.

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The pillars to the immediate right and left are HUGE, but the roadway segments to the right and left of the pillars are even taller. BONUS: For a picture of what this segment looked like in 2004, click here: http://www.rushmessageboard.com/forums/cp/...-1095808446.jpg

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The spire in the middle! It's about as tall as it will get, and it will eventually be plated in glass and filled with LEDs. From the pillar on the far left, to the main spire, will be the north half of the bridge's "main span". In the bottom right corner is the current drawbridge, the Craig Memorial Bridge. It will remain as a local route once the Maumee River Crossing is complete. However, the "under the bridge" sections of highway that are currently there will be destroyed. BONUS: For a picture of what this segment looked like in 2004, click here: http://www.rushmessageboard.com/forums/cp/...-1095808656.jpg

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On the south side of the bridge, the temporary metal supports for the soon-to-be-built bridge deck sit. Supports like that will be built on the other side, as well. Once the bridge deck is complete and the cables are in place, those supports will obviously be removed. Look off farther to the right (south) and you'll see what's in the next picture.

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This is a large portion of bridge deck, being constructed incredibly high up. It's quite amazing to me.

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In this picture are the entrance ramps and freeway from the south, to the bridge. These are nearly complete and look incredible.

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The south side of the project is obviously far more complete than the north side, which really makes the extent of how huge the thing is really stand out.

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At last, here's the end of the project. From here, the "old" highway segment joins where the bridge will eventually connect to, and it's a fairly average drive for the final 8 miles to the Ohio Turnpike.

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The Great Zo
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Harvesting Mole Shreve
PICTURE POST #2
LABOR DAY 2005 - PENNSYLVANIA TRIP
Set 2 of 3 - The Scenery Of Pennsylvania
Saturday, September 3, 2005


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These pictures were all taken on a trip from my Great Grandfather's house in Arroyo, to DuBois. Arroyo is a name with no real significance, as it's not official in any way at all. However, it's the "place name". Technically, his post office address is for the unincorporated community of Portland Mills (5 miles away), and the nearest place incorporated as anything at all is Ridgway (13 miles away), a borough of about 5,000. I did not get to Ridgway this year but would like to, so I can take a lot of pictures. I took a few last year and posted them on CP.

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This area of Pennsylvania seems to have two styles of landscape. This is a good example of the first - rolling hills and open fields. There is a lot of farming done in this area, and deer can be seen often in the fields at night.

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Here's another example, from one of the higher points in this open area. The view in front (to the west) is fairly good.

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The other aspect of the Pennsylvania landscape is the thickly wooded areas. This picture is already a favorite of mine, simply because it looks so cool with the blur and the tilt. Often, the more forested areas of Pennsylvania are also more hilly, and there are a lot of rivers and creeks running through the area as well. The most important is the Clarion River, which begins just north of Ridgway, runs through downtown Ridgway, and then is crossed by the Arroyo Bridge right at my Great Grandfather's house. Eventually, the Clarion River runs into the Allegheny River.

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On the way to DuBois is a llama farm. I took one picture as we went past, but have many good pictures in last year's photo sets. Here's a llama, there's a llama...

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Past the llama farm, and only a few miles outside of Brockway, is a very nice house. It really stands out from all of the run-down shacks in the landscape's similar rural areas. This household also owns horses, and grazes them in the field in front of the house.

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This image shows the crossing of Little Toby Creek just south of downtown Brockway. Brockway is a small borough, with just over 2,000 people.

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Brockway's glass factories are its claim to fame. Outside of one of them is this absolutely huge pile of broken glass shards. It was well worth a picture. Unfortunately, around this point, I started having contrast issues with my camera, so yes I'm aware that my contrast sucks on this one and on a number of pictures in the third set below.

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The Great Zo
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Harvesting Mole Shreve
PICTURE POST #3
LABOR DAY 2005 - PENNSYLVANIA TRIP
Set 3 of 3 - The Clarion River Crossing
Saturday, September 3, 2005


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I am very grateful to have been able to take pictures of the historic bridge over the Clarion river in 2003. In 2004 it was destroyed, and I am also grateful to have taken pictures of the construction process. The bridge is now complete, and thus I can complete the trilogy of pictures.

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This is the bottom of the driveway leading up to my Great Grandfather's house. To the right, the road bends northeast, and to the left is the bridge. Note that the ditch on the right is about five feet deep. Complaints have gone in to the county government to get a guardrail over it!

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Looking towards the southwest, here is the newly completed bridge. The very busy boat launch is on the far side, on the right. The driveway up to the house is on the near left, out of the picture. Note the signs on the far side of the bridge.

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One possible "advantage" to the new bridge is that it's possible to walk below it from the near side now. Previously this was an area overrun with large amounts of brush, and also an area that had a lot of snakes.

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Looking upstream, the water is nice.

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Under the bridge, there's some green pipes running. I'm not sure why, or what they are for.

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Again looking southwest, this is the best picture I have to show the full extent of the bridge.

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This is the view upstream from the top of the bridge. The openness of the new bridge is nice, but I can't help but miss the old one anyway.

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Here's the new sign erected to commemorate the old bridge. While it's a nice touch, I am very disappointed that the old bridge's plaque was not incorporated into the new bridge in any way. As I looked back to my photos from 2003, I found that the plaque had been removed by then. Thus, I don't even have any pictures of it. Despite the obvious necessity for a new bridge, the removal of a piece of history is still something I'm sad about.

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I took this picture from one of the rocks that juts into the river on the south side. The river flows under the bridge from this direction, and thus a street name marker has been placed on it on this side. T-314 is the road's official name, though it's also known as Arroyo Road.

Below here are three pictures taken from the exact same angle, looking the bridge dead-on from the end of the driveway. First in 2003, then in 2004, and then in 2005. The number of trees taken down on the far side of the bridge surprised me - it's a lot.

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One final picture of the old bridge from 2003. You will be missed!

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Finally, a link to a short movie I took from the bridge deck, which shows the scenery nicely. At the start of the movie, the camera is looking down a drain hole on the side of the bridge, at the river below.




THE END!!!!!!!!!!
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ProjectAtlantis
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...
cool story and pics. highly enjoyable.

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