Saturday, January 17, 2015

Poinsett Bridge

Today I had a treat - it was the second sunshiny day in a row and we went out for a ride, taking the dogs with us. It has been months since I had left the house for something other than a doctor's appointment or a hair trim. We picked up lattes, mine was decaf, and started down the road. We ended up at Poinsett bridge, a familiar place to us and our dogs. I hadn't been able to visit there since the summer of 2013. 

 Poinsett Bridge, named for Joel Roberts Poinsett (of Poinsettia fame), was built of local stone in 1820 as part of a road from Columbia, SC to Asheville NC. The bridge includes a 14-foot Gothic arch, is wide enough for a carriage, and stretches 130 feet over Little Gap Creek. Though no longer in use, the stone bridge remains largely intact. The bridge is part of the 120-acre Poinsett Bridge Heritage Preserve . Poinsett bridge is off U.S. Highway 25 north of Greenville, SC. and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It is a lovely area and attracts local visitors especially in the summer to escape the heat. 

It's in a very narrow place between two mountains, which I guess was why it was chosen as a place to build a bridge. It was part of a road to connect Charleston SC with Asheville NC,  and especially used in the summer when wealthy homeowners could escape the dreadful heat in Charleston, with its yearly dangers of Yellow Fever and Cholera.

Today I focused on the arch, topped with a lovely keystone. I imagined workmen's hands place each stone carefully to support the bridge. As you can tell from the width of the arch, the bridge was just the size for a worse and wagon, stage or carriage to cross over it in comfort. Each stone could tell a story.



The photograph may need a boost in contrast, so I may do some tinkering with it tomorrow.I like the angle of the bank and the creek, I just think the overall image needs to be richer. 

On another note, I noticed that Blogger has lost all of my pictures and I need to look into that. I'm not happy about it and I have been thinking I will change my web address for my blog. Perhaps this has pushed me in that direction!


PS, here I changed the contrast, which creates more interest-I really like this much better!




1 comment:

  1. the colors remind me of those I saw at the Grand Canyon. :)

    ReplyDelete

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