Pedestrian Way Overpass

This photo was taken on February 18, 2012 at 4:38 pm 

The location was at a busy section of a long stretch without an intersection in Suburban Maryland. 

The "Take It!" came from my drive by of this ornate piece at almost the same time the day before. I was moving at a quick clip and caught it out of the corner of my eye. By the time I could turn my head for a second look to verify what I had seen, I was too far down the road to catch it.  I determined that I would make a special trip the next day to see if could photograph what I thought I had seen.  Even though the second day was on Saturday, there was still a lot of traffic, thus my slow movement down the road was met with lots of horn blowing. They were doing that "what is that guy doing not keeping up with the traffic!?" I fortunately saw the pedestrian overpass coming up and was relieved to see there was enough space set aside between the outside lane stripe and the curb to accommodate a car. I think that it was set up that way to give a place for a car that might have broken down. All served to accommodate me stopping to take some photos. Part of my wanting to get there at the same time in the very late afternoon was to catch the sun at the point when it seems to be doing that before setting, intensity blast. This was intended to assist in shadow creation to highlight the craftsmanship in the concrete. The sun position did its work and the what would have been another mundane pillar showed its magnificence.  

The After Take:  I have spent some time with this photo alone after having had it printed. I took six shots of it so think I was able to pick the best one. The ornateness of this does not seem to match up with the income level of the neighborhood. Thus, my play on words in the title for the photo. I think someone decided to go way over budget in placing a piece of art work into this neighborhood. The detail in the concrete gives it an almost stained glass cathedral look. The little matching sculpture on top of the concrete and inset into the steel is a very nice accent touch. The retaining rail on the top of the edge of the walkway is also very very nicely done. The entire structure is very well maintained. The grounds under the structure are also very well tended to in comparison to other public areas nearby. The only bit of blight seems to come from the power lines strung under the structure of the walkway itself. Guess the placement of these lines, either overhead or underground, would have been prohibitively expensive, so the sacrifce made.

There is some mystery in all of this, and I like it; Hope you do too. This was sort of like going back to smell the flowers and not being disappointed. 

Thanks for sharing your time with me and my muse. 

Bruce