See this: Chesapeake Bay Bridge - Wikipedia
There was an article in the NY Times about people (including at least one long distance trucker) who are terrified of driving across it and a few people who make a living driving cars across that are being driven by people who fear it.
Now I used to drive across it regularly and this astonished me. I was never bothered by that (or any other) bridge–though I have never driven on the Mackinac Bridge. And I have severe fear of heights. When I visited the grand canyon last year, not only could I not bring myself within 10 feet of the lip, I couldn’t even watch people walking near the rather low lip. And I never thought much of driving over this bridge. And when I drove on the Confederation Bridge: Confederation Bridge - Wikipedia, I was really disappointed that the side rails were built up so high that you couldn’t see the ocean below.
I forgot to mention in my post that, while I have never walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (I still intend to some day), when I was in HS, I walked half way across the Delaware River (now the Benjamin Franklin) Bridge and back. And in 1997, I walked halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge and back, accompanied by then graduate student Sergei Brin.
I can handle most bridges, but I drove over the Bay bridge once (or twice really, in order to return home) and the height of it scared me. The recent accident doesn’t help those who are scared of driving over bridges.
Yes…it even changed NBA history. Back around 1993, U Michigan star Chris Webber was drafted with the first pick by the Golden State Warriors, who had a great coach in Don Nelson and a high-powered offense with Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullen. But Webber was soon complaining, and wanted out, which he got after one season by being traded to the Washington Bullets. The Warriors never made much of a playoff run after that. One of the main reasons Webber didn’t like working in Oakland was that he was afraid of crossing bridges – and bridges are pretty much unavoidable in the Bay Area.
Is there a nice view from the bridge? Perhaps some drivers slow to admire the scenery.
Kindred soul! A footbridge doesn’t have to be real high to bother me. When I was in my late teens, our family visited this bridge. :smack: :smack: I’ve no idea what we were doing there – everybody in the family was horridly afraid of heights. I had a kid brother who raced out to the middle of the bridge and froze, petrified. He’d just learned that moment that he also was afraid of heights. :eek: Guess who was chosen to retrieve him? (I’d blame my neuroses and misopater on this incident, but both had developed years earlier.)
Heh. It should be noted that that view seems to be shot with a long lens, and the foreshortening makes the ramp appear much more extreme than it is. The Google street view of the approach is closer to the impression you get actually driving it:
BTW, my driving experience of the Mackinac Bridge many years ago was in a '72 VW Beetle. Yes, it stayed on the bridge. It even stayed in its lane. An added touch on that bridge is the open grating on the bridge deck, allowing you a view of the water underneath your car.
Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego is high and narrow and quite scenic.
There’s a sign every few feet saying to keep moving, don’t slow down, and if you just have to jump, please don’t leave an empty car behind. (more or less).
Terrifying drive, but at least the bridge is earthquake-resistant. It floats.
Actually, if you live in the South Bay you may not use them that much. I lived in the East Bay when I first moved here, and, yeah, I drove over the Carquinez, San Rafael, Bay Bridge and San Mateo a lot. From the South Bay, if I want to go up to SF, I’m just driving up the Peninsula. If I want to go to the East Bay, I’ll simply drive up the other side of the bay on 880 or 680. I’ll only be using one of the major bridges to get to someplace further north.
Bridges don’t bother me much at all but really high overpasses can get me a bit googly-moogly. I don’t do heights well, generally, but instead of slowing down I might speed up a bit to get it over with quicker.
Its actually not scary at all when you are on it. High walls don’t allow you to get any sense of how high it is. Looks terrifying from a distance, however!
back in my DCI days we had to cross this bride regularly to go to practice
This one is a replacement, the old bridge had piers in the middle of the river. During high water conditions that bridge would vibrate in a very unsettling manner, and on a one occasion I was on the bridge when a pier was hit by a very large drifting tree probably uprooted from the banks by the high water. We were running because we saw it coming and it looked like it was going to hit. we could feel it when the tree hit and there was a lot of loud creaking, but the bridge took it.
CoastalMaineiac, yes some of us are scared of bridges. I don’t like the bridge between Kittery and Portsmouth, for example, but I can cross it without a huge amount of anxiety. The Tobin and George Washington bridges scare the hell out of me, and I’m not willing to try crossing bigger or higher ones than that.
Driving the non-suspension portion of the SF Bay Bridge (I guess it’s called the Eastern Span?) kind of creeped me out, I’m not ashamed to admit. They’re rebuilding the thing, thank God… the new one looks a lot more solid.
Being from the Seattle area, half of our major bridges are floating. I wager floating bridges aren’t as scary, because your car isn’t hundreds of feet above the water. Then again, we also have the Ship Canal Bridge.
Two factors to slow driving on bridges:
First of all, bridges usually offer a great view of the surrounding countryside. Often, this includes a river, inlet or other water body and we humans seem attracted to bodies of water for some odd reason.
Second, and more importantly, most bridges are curved, meaning you can’t see the far side until you’re halfway across. We know intellectually that the road continues to the other side but until you actually see it, there’s a subconscious fear that the ground (aka the bridge) becomes a cliff somewhere past your vision. This fear causes people to slow down (since their current speed doesn’t feel as safe anymore).
