I have this thing about bridges.
I told you about my love of the Severn River Crossing back in September last year.
I adore the colours (pale blue and green) that make it almost invisible against the milky teal backdrop of the Severn Estuary and its mesmerising criss-crossing cables, like driving along a tree-lined road in rural France (keep your eyes fixed on the road or fall under their hypnotic spell).
Like all zealous bridge geeks, I remember my first drive over it with a fizz of irrepressible nostalgic joy. It was 1996 and I was directed onto the new bridge (renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge earlier this year) rather than the stark white Severn Bridge of my childhood trips to Wales.
I remember driving across it as the light bounced off the sea below, bringing the bridge to life, and saying to myself, over and over, ‘Oh wow!!!!’ because of its superb design, its sheer gargantuan beauty. I still feel that way 20 years on, which is why a) I get excited all over again, without fail, every single time I clap eyes on it, even though I ought to be old enough to contain myself and b) I finally got SIC to take some pics from the passenger seat (he wasn’t old enough to do so before. I KNEW there was as a reason I became a mum…)
Joy of joys. Geek question alert: what’s your favourite bridge, and why? Colour? Structure? Or something more enigmatic?
Martha, The Colour File x
