I'm not comfortable with heights, especially on bridges. With the focus on bridges, and this great picture posted by Mikado this day, it gave me the idea for a poll about one of the scariest bridges I have ever been on. The Huey P.
I have traveled over the Huey P. frequently by car and it wasn't the height so much as it was the narrowness of the road and meeting oncoming trucks. There is not much room for error. It is indeed an interesting bridge.
Poppy, I think it was the 6 pm news pictures of garbage trucks hanging by their front bumpers 100 feet in the air with a driver scared #@($ less waiting to be rescued that took its toll! Do you wonder if those outside New Orleans and regulars know it's name is just the Huey P ?? Ever had a train on the bridge on the span with you? The very noticeable sway of the locomotives as they crawl over it is way scary too. Joe
The firm I use to work for had its regional office in Harahan near the tracks and bridge. I was always amazed at the trains as they crept over the bridge and yes the sway is very noticeable. I always imagined what a disaster it would be if one derailed at the very height of the bridge, God forbid.
C. W. Standefer and his wife Era used to go over to Baton Rouge from Commerce, TEXAS to visit their son, daughter-in-law and grandsons. I think this photo was taken on one of their visits to Louisiana in the early 1950s.
Wikipedia page on the bridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_P._Long_Bridge_(Jefferson_Parish) While locals may call it the "Huey P", on paper it's the Huey P. Long, named after the Louisiana Governor of the same name.
For some reason, I thought this was that double track bridge.. St Louis? I forget where, but it's a LONG bridge as well. maybe this is it?
Drove over it driving a motor-home pulling a car. Followed a semi because thought it was best not to pass. Person sitting on the passenger side got up and moved to the driver side, said the awning was missing the bridge by inches.
It is one of three Baldwin 900 horsepower diesels delivered to the New Orleans Public Belt in 1937. There is a website here: http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/contents.html that describes these very unique diesels in more detail. They are also on page 285 of my DSGII.
Take a look at the bridge on Google Earth. It is definitely double track, and it looks just wonderful from the top. I think what got me is that the automobile lanes look like they are attached by 'big shelf' brackets and are about as wide as a model T. Some in New Orleans call it the Huey P Narrow. Joe
yea, in a camper van you know an early ninety-something ford with loosy goosy steering. just had to say i had been on it. david
Huey P. "Narrow" is More Like It.... The bridge roadways are famously narrow - built for 1934 model vehicles. In a prior life I was a traffic cop there, and worked many a Huey Long Bridge side-swipe when impatient car drivers tried to squeeze past 18 wheelers.
I ride the left lane, hugging the left rail as close to the tracks as I can get without swapping paint. mg: I don't like it, it ain't fun, but it's the only convenient route I can take to the UP/BNSF/NOPB Avondale Yard. Besides, as said before, creeping past 15,000-20,000 HP less than five feet away is AWESOME! :shade: OK, so I could take the Canal St. Ferry, but have you experienced driving through the "Wet" Bank from Algiers to Avondale lately....:angry: I rest my case!
The scariest bridge I know of was the K&I bridge from Louisville, to New Albany. The lanes were hung off the outside of the bridge itself. and were only one narrow lane wide. There were pull-offs every several hundred feet in case of breakdowns (or railfans). To get on or off the bridge on the Louisville side there was a ramp that followed the curve of the trestlework approach for the railroad and if a train was going by you gradually came up to track level while seeing this train hovering almost over top of your car. It was really great with a steam engine watching the rods and levers going around.
Mikado, I hope you did not mind me using your great photo! The Louisville bridge sounds like the same design as the Huey P. The trestle approach is really long, 1/2 mile or more on each side and the land is pancake flat so it tends to emphasizes the height of the bridge. Couple this with many of the land fills for New Orleans are on the other side of the bridge. This means you have a garbage truck in front, beside or in back of you from 4 pm to 6 pm. As said before, the lanes are very narrow and there is little shoulder. The high wall on the edge is both a help and hindrance. Hard to imagine but it can be a bit claustrophobic driving over this bridge you know is a about a billion feet in the air!
No problem about using the photo. I've been over the Huey P several times in a car and it is narrow. but, Shrink it down to one lane, steel grateing floor (makes it a 'singing' bridge), paint it black and you've got the K&I bridge. This view is northbound.
