Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times

An Examination of the Other Roles that Bridges Serve in Our Communities Tourist bridges span the range from small, abandoned structures that have been preserved in a county park to large, world-famous bridges with sidewalks, viewing platforms, visitor centers, decorations, tour guides, and a gift shop to accommodate their enormous numbers of visitors. People visit bridges to pursue an interest in history or architecture, to obtain the best available view of the landscape or riverfront, to use its sidewalk as a hiking and biking trail, or just because the bridge is a famous landmark. Based on detailed research, interviews, and hikes across hundreds of walkable bridges, Bridgespotting examines 50 different reasons, citing more than 350 specific examples, that people visit bridges as tourists, for recreation, or in the pursuit of a hobby. By providing detailed descriptions of more than 70 of the most prominent tourist bridges and multi-bridge tours in the United States, Canada, and Europe, Bridgespotting serves as a travel guide for those interested in exploring the history and cultural development of their next vacation destination, or of the local bridge that they drive over every day. Also, through the identification and cataloguing of the features that make bridges important to the community and attractive to visitors, Bridgespotting provides dozens of ideas to be considered by communities that are planning new bridges, or pondering what to do with their old, obsolete bridges.