Arriving in Charleston, S.C. on Tuesday morning, we drove on U.S. 17 across the city’s midsection between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers in route to our hotel in Mt. Pleasant, and thus unwittingly became early (and awestruck) users of the sparkling new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, the longest cable-stay span on the North American continent.
The twin-towered bridge is impressive, with four lanes of traffic traveling each way, but at present it provides an even funkier visual ambience owing to the continued existence of two older steel bridges dating from the 1920’s and 1960’s, whose archaic metallic lines are currently woven through the sleek contours of the new bridge, which only opened for traffic on July 16. The two older bridges are to be dismantled.
Observers of the local bridge-building scene should note that the actual construction of the Cooper River Bridge took five years, with a total price tag placed at somewhere around $700 million, while cyclists and pedestrians will celebrate the addition of a lane for their use – but not without a campaign to merit inclusion!
Go to the official bridge site for more details.
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Having a son who lives in Mt. Pleasant, I have watched this bridge go up in a short period of time. My wife's response is always "and we haven't been able to get bridge built in Louisville for twenty plus years.
Ed, I didn't have time to hook up with Craig while there - maybe next time. We had everything planned to the minute, and then with the heat, it slowed the pace of sightseeing considerably.
Hope you got a chance visit the historic district. Charleston (arguably the birth place of preservation) has been an inspiration to me since visiting as child. It's a magical place.
I had traversed the old bridges many times during annual visits for the Cooper River Bridge 10k run. The damn things actually moved up and down with the pounding of all those feet. Certainly not a trip for the faint of heart.
Ted, we did spend the day Wednesday exploring Charleston's historic disrict with the help of the 100-stop self-guided tour, undertaken on the nastiest day of the summer in terms of heat and humidity.
It was stunning to see what they've done, and we were told that the preservation effort has accelerated since Hurricane Hugo, circa 1989, with repairs leading to renovations.
Naturally, being a latent Civil War buff, standing by the Battery and looking out on Ft. Sumter was a big highlight, as was visiting the fort itself (in spite of there being little left of it).
Diana wasn't feeling well most of the day, heat aside, and eventually retired to recuperate, but I pressed on for the last bit, eventually finding myself on King Street near the Visitor Center, where there's a kosher felafel eatery run by Israelis -- mighty good, and satellite Israeli television to boot.
Been to the Israeli falafel eatery, what a diamond in the rough wouldn't you say? Hopefully you stopped in the Charleston Beer Works [www.charlestonbeerworks.com] for a pint which is on King near where you were? Which by the way is the home for all of the Boston Red Sox fans, go figure with the Charleston River Dogs being the single A franchise for the Yankees. Real glad you enjoyed your stay, we'll chat about it. Good luck on Saturday.
Ed, I was at the Beer Works before opening time, and settled on a restorative pint down at Condon's pub.
Charleston opened a series Tuesday at the Savannah Sand Gnats (now there's a great name), so we didn't catch a game.
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