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There are many famous bridges in the world. There are the
longest bridges, the widest bridges, the shortest bridges,
bridges made by nature and by man. We decided to concentrate on our favorite bridges here at home. You should visit the web sites listed in our bibliography to find information about famous bridges. These sites do a great job and are very informative.
One ofour favorite bridges is the Rigolets Bridge. The
Rigolets Bridge is in Chalmette, Louisiana. It's a swing bridge.
It goes over the Rigolets Pass which leads to the city of New Orleans through Lake Pontchartrain. The Rigolets Pass is very historic and was important in the War of 1812.
The bridge was built in 1931 and is still running. It replaced
ferry service which was used for a very long time. It swings to
the side to let boats through. We got to go up steep stairs over water to the controll tower and were on the bridge when it swung open to let boats through. The cars really got backed up but not for to long! We saw the bridge controller move the draw bridge. It is very precise job that has to be done exactly right. Machines are taking place of most human bridge controllers. We think that is sad.
Another one of our favorite bridges is the Lake Pontchartrain
Causeway. We just call it the Causeway. Most of our parents
drive on it every day on their way to work. It joins the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans. It's 24 miles long! It has more then 9,000 concrete pilings. You can can drive to the middle of it and not see any land.On foggy days, traffic going over the bridge can be very slow and frustrating. The Causeway even has it's own police force to make sure drivers stay safe. |