I was in Charleston a few times in October and decided to snap a few photos of the new bridge going up across Charleston Harbor. This new bridge will replace two older bridges steel truss bridges which are past their useful life.
Here you can see the bridge looking into Charleston Harbor from the Atlantic side. The two main support towers are visible along with the older bridges...
I took these photos from the water front deck of the Ft Sumter Memorial. Charleston has done a wonderful job of making the waterfront accessable to the public.
Next door is the brand new SC Aquarium.
This is a close up of the individual towers. It will be a beautiful bridge when complete. Note the new port facility in the second photo. Charleston has become a major port on the east coast.
When I was there taking photos, a large ship was unloading foriegn made automobiles. Not sure of the brand. This used to be the exclusive domain of the Jacksonville Port, but Charleston is increasingly taking away business from there.
Looking out of the harbor into the Atlantic, we see a huge container ship headed to be unloaded. The Island is Ft. Sumter which is where, for you history challenged, the Civil War started. Wonder what the peeps of that day would think of the bridge?
Posh Deck Boat
Another shot of the bridge from the pier. Hurricane Francis was in the vicinity when I took these photos and was doing wierd things with the lighting.
In this pic, you can clearly see the two older bridges. The one on the left is the now very thrilling Grace Memorial bridge built in the 1920s. It is off limits to trucks as it is feared they might bring it down, but you can still drive your car across it. The newer Pierson (I think) bridge to the right, was built in the 1960s. It is also being torn down as it is not high enough for the newer container cargo ships which are in use today. As a result these ships have to use the older port facilities. These older yards are several hundred years old and at one time were the main port where Slaves from Africa were imported into the USA.
More pics of the three bridges.
The USS Yorktown and a very nice sail boat.
One final shot of the bridge from the Mt. Pleasant side of the water. This photo was take a few weeks later when another one of the hurricanes was threatening the area so again, wierd atmospherics.
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