Not to keep you in suspenders, um... suspension, um... suspense
I started off the day in St. Clairsville, Ohio, where you'll find the closest Best Western to Wheeling, West Virginia. The top-rated touristy thing to visit in Wheeling is an old suspension bridge that is part of the National Road and was the largest suspension bridge in the world from 1849-1851.
It is ordinarily open to motor traffic in a limited sort of way (weight limit 2 tons, height limit 8 feet, with at least a 50 foot interval between vehicles), but at the end of June, some genius decided to drive a tour bus over it. The height limit isn't imposed by the bridge itself -- there are barriers installed at each end of the bridge as a deterrent to big, heavy vehicles. According to an article I found, the barriers swing inward only, so after the bus pushed one barrier up to gain access to the bridge, it was trapped between the two barriers. You can see and read about what happened here: http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2019/06/charter-bus-crosses-2-ton-limit-wheeling-suspension-bridge-span-closed/ They are still waiting to inspect the bridge to decide whether to re-open it to motor traffic.
I found a shady spot to park near the Wheeling Island end of the bridge and started walking and snapping photos. I saw other pedestrians crossing with confidence, but when I stepped out onto the suspension span, I felt just enough movement in the bridge to feel a bit off-balance. It didn't help that the bridge roadbed is far from solid. There is one kind of open texture for the driving surface and another kind of open texture for the walkways. The driving surface is a very open grid that looks like this (all the greenish-brown you see is river water and all the black is shaded vertical structure -- I took the photo at an angle, so it looks more solid than it is):
I didn't measure the grid, but in my mind's eye, each square and diamond that makes up the pattern is 2-3 inches per side and most of the surface area is empty space. The surface of the walkways appears more solid and wouldn't be bad to walk on, except for my being able to feel the bridge move:
So I opted not to walk across the Ohio River this time. It wouldn't have been my first time walking across the Ohio -- that happened a few years ago in Louisville when I crossed the old train bridge that's been converted to a lovely pedestrian bridge (https://louisvillewaterfront.com/explore-the-park/features/big-4-bridge/). This encounter with the Ohio River was getting pretty close to where the river starts, but isn't quite there. Perhaps some day I'll make a trek to the beginning of the river.
Next I considered driving to New Vrindaban, WV to see the Palace of Gold: https://palaceofgold.com However by the time I got to Limestone, I'd had enough of the bad surface on the backroads, and didn't feel like adding the word "Ridge" to what I was driving on (the next turn would have been onto McCreary's Ridge Road). How bad was the road? In general it was bumpy and winding, but occasionally there would be a "bump" big enough for the highway department to consider it worth warning motorists about 500 feet in advance. These "bumps" were places where the road had sunk and they had tried to patch it, but these things were big enough and deep enough that I'm not at all sure that I could have avoided bottoming out if I'd stayed completely in my lane. Fortunately I never met an oncoming vehicle at the same point where one of those "bumps" showed up, but it would not have been pretty if I had. Shortly after Limestone I crossed into Pennsylvania, and the roads got better.
Speaking of Pennsylvania, this was a 4-state day and also a 4-state-line day, thanks to two crossing into West Virginia twice. The states? Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia again, and Maryland.
Speaking of Maryland, I'm at my cousin's house now and won't be doing much traveling the next couple of weeks. However, if anything interesting happens, I will take notes.
It is ordinarily open to motor traffic in a limited sort of way (weight limit 2 tons, height limit 8 feet, with at least a 50 foot interval between vehicles), but at the end of June, some genius decided to drive a tour bus over it. The height limit isn't imposed by the bridge itself -- there are barriers installed at each end of the bridge as a deterrent to big, heavy vehicles. According to an article I found, the barriers swing inward only, so after the bus pushed one barrier up to gain access to the bridge, it was trapped between the two barriers. You can see and read about what happened here: http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2019/06/charter-bus-crosses-2-ton-limit-wheeling-suspension-bridge-span-closed/ They are still waiting to inspect the bridge to decide whether to re-open it to motor traffic.
I found a shady spot to park near the Wheeling Island end of the bridge and started walking and snapping photos. I saw other pedestrians crossing with confidence, but when I stepped out onto the suspension span, I felt just enough movement in the bridge to feel a bit off-balance. It didn't help that the bridge roadbed is far from solid. There is one kind of open texture for the driving surface and another kind of open texture for the walkways. The driving surface is a very open grid that looks like this (all the greenish-brown you see is river water and all the black is shaded vertical structure -- I took the photo at an angle, so it looks more solid than it is):
I didn't measure the grid, but in my mind's eye, each square and diamond that makes up the pattern is 2-3 inches per side and most of the surface area is empty space. The surface of the walkways appears more solid and wouldn't be bad to walk on, except for my being able to feel the bridge move:
So I opted not to walk across the Ohio River this time. It wouldn't have been my first time walking across the Ohio -- that happened a few years ago in Louisville when I crossed the old train bridge that's been converted to a lovely pedestrian bridge (https://louisvillewaterfront.com/explore-the-park/features/big-4-bridge/). This encounter with the Ohio River was getting pretty close to where the river starts, but isn't quite there. Perhaps some day I'll make a trek to the beginning of the river.
Next I considered driving to New Vrindaban, WV to see the Palace of Gold: https://palaceofgold.com However by the time I got to Limestone, I'd had enough of the bad surface on the backroads, and didn't feel like adding the word "Ridge" to what I was driving on (the next turn would have been onto McCreary's Ridge Road). How bad was the road? In general it was bumpy and winding, but occasionally there would be a "bump" big enough for the highway department to consider it worth warning motorists about 500 feet in advance. These "bumps" were places where the road had sunk and they had tried to patch it, but these things were big enough and deep enough that I'm not at all sure that I could have avoided bottoming out if I'd stayed completely in my lane. Fortunately I never met an oncoming vehicle at the same point where one of those "bumps" showed up, but it would not have been pretty if I had. Shortly after Limestone I crossed into Pennsylvania, and the roads got better.
Speaking of Pennsylvania, this was a 4-state day and also a 4-state-line day, thanks to two crossing into West Virginia twice. The states? Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia again, and Maryland.
Speaking of Maryland, I'm at my cousin's house now and won't be doing much traveling the next couple of weeks. However, if anything interesting happens, I will take notes.
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