Million Dollar Bridge, Alaska.

Million Dollar Bridge, Cordova, Alaska

Million Dollar Bridge crosses the Copper River outside of Cordova, Alaska.

There is an info kiosk near this bridge with photos and descriptions of the hardships the workers faced building this bridge back in 1908. Having grown up along the Copper River, I have an idea of how cold it can be in the winter - I can’t imagine battling that cold, snow and wind while crossing cables and working in coffer dams back in those days! This railroad eventually lead to the Kennecott Copper mines and mill near McCarthy, Alaska. Here is a photo of the Kennecott Mill.

Having said all that - what caught my eye when composing this photo was the shadow created by the bridge.

As an interesting side note, the furthest span fell into the river after the Good Friday earthquake in 1964. You can see an older photo here of the Million Dollar Bridge with the downed span. In 2004 and 2005, this span was raised back into place. Although the road bed on the bridge is level, I heard a few people complain the span was not raised all the way. By looking at the shadow you can see the furthest span is a little lower then the others.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Alaska, Chugach, Ron, Author, Photos, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.