Ok, so this is a bridge. I’m not sure if it counts as architecture, but I do believe we learned about Roman aqueducts and the like, so I’m going to roll with it. I believe this is one of the most amazingly beautiful and terrifying bridges I’ve ever driven across. Granted some of the mystique comes from the surrounding geography. The bridge links Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound in Washington state. It is also the only way off of Whidbey Island that is not a ferry.
The waterway is called Deception pass because original Spanish explorers believed Fidalgo and Whidbey were all one island and the pass was merely a bay. The waters of the pass are also deceptively calm looking; but the undertows are vicious. The bridge itself, finished in 1935, is only two lanes wide, and those are narrow lanes. But as it’s the only way for semis to get to the towns on island, they must cross it daily. This makes or quite a hair-raising drive when you encounter one. Further, you have to drive quite slowly, way slower than any young sailor (or tourist) likes to go, or you can easily lose control and head over the edge. As I said, the lanes are narrow and the water below is highly turbulent below the surface. Going over is a sure death.
The entire area, the water, the rocks, the trees, can change its look depending of the way the sun hits it during the day, or whether or not it is overcast, and what time of year it is. The metal of the bridge also takes on different looks with these differences in weather. It happens frequently where there will be a fog over one island and only one part of the bridge, completely obscuring the destination requiring faith that it is still there. It is also not very well lit at night because it is a state park and they want to preserve the flora and fauna of the area.
My husband and I moved to Whidbey Island in the spring of 2006 and we lived there for 6 years. You could maybe chalk up the tense feeling crossing the bridge the first few times to the jitters of moving to a new location and starting life at a new duty station, but after 6 years, those feelings never went away. The final year we lived there I worked on the main land and drove over the bridge twice a day for 5 days out of the week, and every time I was struck by the amazing feat to bridge these lands, the beauty of the man made work and the nature it was anchored to, and the risk taken with each crossing. Many buildings and structures are examples of man conquering nature, but this structure leaves you wondering if we really have mastered it, as we sometimes think.
