My wifey Lynndee has posted here about our recent summer vacation which took us to the state of Georgia. On that trip we went to Atlanta to humor my love of baseball and see my favorite team, the Atlanta Braves. We then took a little side trip to Covington, Georgia, to humor Lynndee’s love of the television series The Vampire Diaries because that’s where the series was filmed with Covington then being dubbed Mystic Falls.

The next leg of our journey took us to Savannah, Georgia to visit the city which was the end point of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea during the Civil War. We spent a wonderful weekend in that historic city which included actually seeing the house General Sherman used as his headquarters. While in the city, one thing that was always catching my eye was a huge bridge. Anywhere you found yourself in the city, if you looked north, on the horizon you’d see a huge arc of steel and concrete. The first thing that entered my mind was wondering if we’d cross that span on our way home. Much to my delight, when I got out the road atlas, I discovered that that was the first step we’d take on the long journey homeward.

Talmadge Memorial Bridge

The original Talmadge bridge, built in 1953, was a cantilever truss structure. However, it eventually became a danger for large ships entering the Port of Savannah. So a cable-stayed replacement was constructed and opened in 1991 under the name of Talmadge Memorial Bridge in honor of a former governor. When we drove over the bridge on the way to Hutchinson Island and then to a two-lane bride over the Black River into South Carolina, the view we had was astounding. Off to the left we could see the port and all the huge freighters unloading their goods. And to the right was the Savannah river, snaking its way to the Atlantic.

Famous American Bridges

But this bridge is just one of the many famous ones I’ve crossed in the journeys of my time. My first memory of one is from back in the early 70s when I crossed the Mackinac Bridge over the Straits of Mackinac that link Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. The bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, a span of 4.995 miles, making it the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere. And what a view it offers!

Other famous American bridges I’ve crossed are the Hernando de Soto Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee, crossing the Mississippi River into Arkansas; the original Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, on a journey to Ithaca College taking my daughter for a visit; the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia; the Verrazzano Bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn; the Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge, spanning the Ohio River, connecting Covington, Kentucky, to Cincinnati, Ohio; and the George Washington Bridge, traveling from New Jersey to New York City across the Hudson River.

Ahead, is the Black River, and in the distance is South Carolina.

As you can see, I’ve traveled many-a-mile by car across this country. Obviously, I love a road trip, though recently I’ve finally taken to the airways, finally flying after years of having a great fear of flying. And now I actually love to take wing!

But as for one of those trips, the one that took me across the Tappan Zee Bridge, I’m certainly glad I never had to repeat it. Though my daughter liked Ithaca College, their musical  scholarship offer was limited and she received a much better offer from Elon College, which became a university just a month before she entered. And seeing that Elon was just 190 miles from Asheville, NC, as opposed to 727 miles to Ithaca, I was totally happy she chose Elon, for I was able to travel to all her musical events. And other than recognizing Elon as a constant answer to the crossword puzzle clue – a college in NC – I knew nothing of it until she went there.

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

Crossing the the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was actually a completion of one of my bucket list wishes. I first heard of it back in the early 70s when I read a fantastic book by the Gay Talese, Fame and Obscurity. The book focuses on New York City and contains the fantastic story The Bridge, chronicling the construction of this famous bridge. I still have the old, beat-up copy of that paperback which cost me the grand total of $1.25; I’ve probably read it at least a hundred times! And if you’ll notice the spelling, Verrazzano, for years the bridge was known as Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with only one z, taking away from the honor given to Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who discovered what is now known as New York Bay. That mistake, however, has now been corrected, and for the first time since 1964, the bridge will be properly known.

George Washington Bridge

But the one bridge crossing that will always hold a special place in my heart is that of the George Washington Bridge. It was from that vantage point that I got my first look at the skyline of New York City, seeing the iconic Twin Towers for the very first time. And it’s so ironic, now that I’ve made several trips to the Big Apple, that I still cannot put down that I’ve crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. Definitely next time, though! But until then, I’ll be stuck in traveling over a not-so-famous crossing, the Major General Albert Boyd Bridge over the French Broad River, a not-so-famous river. But it’s mine, right in my own back yard, so it’s famous to me.