The Ahwahnee Bridge in Yosemite Valley is one of several historic bridges that the National Park Service may demolish as part of its "Merced River Plan." Their plan is open for public comment until April 2013 and can be found at http://www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/mrp-deis-doc.htm
Removal of this or other bridges will significantly impact access for visitors to Yosemite and adversely effect the historic character of the valley landscape. They also plan to remove the famous Ice Rink, which is hardly next to the river, but deemed incompatible with recreational values there. Please comment on their short-sighted demolition plans.
ps. Btw, the Wards Ferry road is one of the great backroads of northern California, if you are ever in Groveland needing to go to Sonora (or vice versa) go that way, tellm Dingus sentchya.
When this bridge opens on May 3rd, about 40 invited BASE jumpers are going to have 3 days of fun with this. Worlds Tallest, over 1,300', to the road deck and then those pillars are another 500'!!!
In many cases, yes. In the case of the scores the enviros forced the Alaska
Pipeline to build, not so much. They were afraid the pipeline, standing
high above the tundra, would scare the caribou and change their migration.
Right, like that woulda happened. Having worked up there I can assure you
the caribou absolutely love those 'bridges' to smithereens! The bulls will
get up on 'em to make sure some interloper isn't exercising his designs on
his wimmen. But no other self-repecting caribou is gonna waste calories
walking over the silly things. On warm and windless days the rest of the
'bou will be found standing in the shade provided by the pipe. The elevated
pipe also provides a bit of a venturi effect for any wind there is which
helps to keep the damn bugs off.
And did I mention that the only things 'bou are scared of are wolves?
When you go out to your truck in the morning you often have to shoo the
'bou away. Yeah, they're so afraid of people. Well, ok, unless you're
dressed like an Inuit hunter.
Let us know!