Bridges add to Garfield Park's charm

The basic architecture used on bridges for vehicular traffic in Garfield Park is quite similar. I don't profess to be an engineering or even materials expert, but the construction of the original spans -- which constitute all but one -- appears to involve a concrete base and concrete or limestone block in the rails.

With the exception of the arched, Ticklebelly Hill span over Pleasant Run at the north end of  Conservatory Drive (featured here two posts ago) and another over Bean Creek farther south on Conservatory Drive that has been closed to vehicular traffic for as long as I can remember, the bridges are relatively flat. This image leading off the post is one of two pedestrian-only bridges over Bean Creek in the park. Both are either right off Conservatory Drive or not not far from it; the one pictured above and the first several below is the northernmost one.

The latter bridge mentioned above -- the now pedestrian-only crossing off Conservatory Drive -- seems to have been a favorite of photographers and en plain-air (open-air) painters over the years. Perhaps that's because it's off the main road, and therefore, there's little likelihood of disruption while painting or setting up photo compositions. Many of the paintings I've seen of the bridge are from the angle seen in the lead photo of today's post and in the fashion illustrated at this blog post.

There are a half-dozen or so bridges in the park, two crossing over Pleasant Run and the remainder over Bean Creek. The newest is the pedestrian bridge over Bean Creek just west of the Sunken Garden. It was installed and opened in 2009, returning to park-goers a shortcut they had been denied for quite a few years after the old, decrepit original was removed but not initially replaced. The one bridge not pictured in this post (or in a previous post from the Dec. 21 shoot) is the vehicular-traffic span over Pleasant Run at the west of the park on Pagoda Drive.

To view a full gallery of shots from the Dec. 21 shoot in Garfield Park, visit my site at SmugMug.

Next Up: A final post on the Dec. 21 shoot.

Above and next four below: Different views of the older, northernmost pedestrian bridge over Bean Creek. 

Above: A concrete sphere is used as an adornment on the same pedestrian bridge pictured above. 

Above and below: This bridge over Bean Creek takes traffic to the parking lot of the Garfield Park Arts Center. In the photo below, the 90-degree patterns -- those in the stone rail and the ones on the sidewalk created by snowfall -- caught my eye on the road surface portion of the bridge. 

Above and next two below: Different views of the newest bridge in the park, the pedestrian span over Bean Creek just outside the Sunken Garden (background in photo above). 

Above: The southernmost vehicular-traffic bridge in the park lacks the concrete or limestone block rails. It spans Bean Creek before leading traffic to the parking area alongside the tennis courts and the south entrance to the Sunken Garden.

Above: Standing on the bridge pictured in the previous photo, one sees this bridge over Bean Creek on Southern Avenue, which serves as the park's southern boundary.