Ok, it actually didn't turn out too bad because the weather didn't get really bad until about an hour later but where is the worst place you can imagine your drivers side, windshield wiper quiting on you?

How about on the worlds second longest bridge during the beginnings of a snow storm. Yup, it's 12.9 km long (that's 8 miles for you folks who think measuring in divisions of 10 is too easy,) it's only two lanes wide and there is NO stopping allowed.



Luckily the flurries were kind of blowing right past my windshield for a long time and I was able to see without leaning over for the first 80% or so. Once across I had to pull over and tie a string to the wiper so I could pull it up from inside the Jeep. I had it tied to the other wiper so it's down stroke would pull it back down. Actually worked pretty good once I got the timing right. Made it the rest of hour or so ways home pulling the string every 5 or 6 strokes.

Good Times!

Where's the bridge?

If you look closely on the picture, you can't miss it; it's moslty right above the water.

Unless you meant geographically. Then it is the Confederation Bridge between PEI and New Brunswick. If it is not, then it sure looks like it!

Between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. You are looking down at the PEI side in the picture.

It sure beats the old ferry system. Although it still costs you 40 bucks every time you leave the province which bugs me a bit. You can still take the ferry system on the other end of the Island if you feel nostalgic but it doesn't run in the winter.

Not a good time for wiper failure but it sure is beautiful.

Wow... scary. Glad you got through ok. Nice rigging!

This is going to sound like a flippant question, but I don't mean it that way. Also, I'm sure there is a completely logical answer but, if so, it certainly escapes me at the moment. OK here goes.

Whatsamatta with those people? Can't they build a straight bridge?

I do have a guess but, since I don't want to sound any dumber than I already have, I'll just keep it to myself.

Reminds me of that old photo where the guys installing the train tracks have the "left" one meeting up with the "right" one!

I'm sure there's a better answer than it being a mistake...though the shortest distance between two points.....

Jack,

I was about to mention the crooked bridge...I attribute the straightness of the bridge to the caliber of engineers that are available on the East Coast of Canada

I imagine that was where it was easiest to put the pilings.

It's because of the fact that the water actually ices over, causing additional strain on the bridge. The design actually helps alleviate that.

Ha! I knew somebody smart would show up eventually!


Yes, I just insulted everyone.

Assuming this is salt water from the ocean, how cold does it need to be for the ocean to freeze over? I would wager that the water under that bridge never freezes (12.9km worth?).

So now we're back to the crooked bridge for no reason :p

There is a lot of freshwater flowing out from the St. Lawrence and it does freeze over from what I have seen. That is why the bottom of the pillars are multipointed to help break up the ice flows.

Looks like it's well lit.

That's 'cause it's a daytime photo.

Well I suppose that explains why the bridge and the surroundings are so well visible ... thanks for the valuable info Mark!

I think Rick's well lit.

Ha, this is hilarious. Doormat, is definitely correct, it is that shape to help alleviate with the ice flow. As someone who was once stuck on a ferry for nine hours instead of the usual 45 minutes, because it couldn't break through some exceptionally heavy ice, I can assure you it definitely gets very heavily iced over in the winter time. There are sometimes parts where the tide keeps it broken into huge chunks but some of our local species are actually not indigenous but crossed over on the ice during winter. Like Coyotes! Grrr!

Pretty much the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence ices up in the winter time. Here is a live Internet camera on the bride, It looks like you could skate to the mainland today.
Confederation Bridge Live Eye

It is an amazing feat of engineering actually. It took over 4 years to build, cost 1.3 Billion dollars, and the project employed over 5000 people over it's lifetime. Four people died from falls or construction related deaths but that was actually considered a good number because the company 'budgeted' for up to 10 deaths as they actually expected more in a project of this size.

All pieces were assembled on land and then floated out to sea on the worlds largest floating crane called the Svanen. It in itself was impressive. Hard to tell how really big it is in this picture until you look closely and realize that the t-shaped thing on the right is actually one of hundreds of center spans that you drive on. It must still be on land in the background as it's not under the lifting device of the super-barge.


They would float out and place the bridge bases on the ocean floor with accuracy that had to be within inches because they would then take out one of these center spans and drop them to rest between the two bases.

I'm rambling but it was incredible to watch it grow. I was offered an IT related job around the networked payroll system for the project actually but I declined for reasons I won't go into.

Looking at the feed right now... Looks like some fender bender happened and there's a cop writing a ticket or something...

Sure is a bouncy bridge!

It's not bouncy, your head is bobbing because those big ears are catching wind.

Murph, that's awesome! Thank you for telling that story.

If I remember right it was an engineering firm from Calgary that took on the project and there are a couple of documentaries out there on the building of it. They are quite interesting.

The building company was ((Jack is going to love this)) "Straight Crossing" from Denmark. I thought they engineered it also, but honestly, I'm not sure.

From Wiki:

"Strait Crossing Inc., Calgary, Alberta (subsidiary of W. A. Stephenson / Stephenson Construction International (SCI) Engineers & Constructors Group of Companies)"

LOL! A misnamed company for sure.

No fair looking stuff up. LOL
Must have just been the Svanen that was from Denmark. From the name, that's a pretty safe bet.

I remembered there were some big write ups in the papers around here about all the different aspects of what had to happen for it to work and that the company was from here. I had to look it up as it was awhile ago.