On a good day, when the weather is perfect, crossing the massive bridge over the Ohio River just south of Cairo, Illinois is dangerous. Most travelers see only how narrow the antique steel structure is as they try to avoid being smash by large trucks. When the bridge empties out its traffic over to the Kentucky side, motorists have to immediately transverse a 90 degree turn in the off ramp. Very dangerous! This bridge was build for traffic in the 1940’s and 1950’s, not today’s volume of monster trucks or long lines of traffic.
Recently a traveler through the River County region caught a rare glimpse of art in the design of the Bridge over the Ohio River, just north of where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join. His name was Paul Winger from St. Paul, Minnesota and he was on a mission.
Paul was conducting a personal Photography safari through West Kentucky and eastern Missouri. For some 8 days he wandered into lakes, rivers, corn fields, and small towns, in search of out of the ordinary subjects for his photography. Following maps in his Sierra Club books, each day he plotted his adventure.
During his trek over to the natural preserves in the boot heel of Missouri, Paul and his good friend Mike Benassi took on the challenge of crossing the Wickliffe Bridge. As luck would have it, just the moment that Paul’s car reached the entrance of the bridge, the light and image presented to him made Paul scream.
“Take the wheel, Mike!!!’
Taking both hands off of the speeding car, Paul drew out his camera and proceeded to capture the beauty of steel merging into morning light a hundred feet over the Ohio River.
Luckily for him, his friend Mike had the good sense and instinct for survival and grabbed the wheel. Also luckily for both, there was no traffic coming at them.
The result of this temporary photographic moment of insanity and inspired artistic genius is the above picture. Enjoy!
|
