Comments on: Avoid getting stuck at the Main Street Drawbridge

By: erick g

erick g — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:29:25 +0000

Michael, my last sentence read “So letÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s turn our attention to the underlying cause of our frustration here: water.” Hopefully I wasn’t serious, right? I apologize for insinuating what I did with the link I sent.

By: PCollins

PCollins — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:11:17 +0000

I like stopping for the bridge.

There’s really nothing in my world that can’t wait 10-20 minutes.

Unless I have to poop.

By: Michael Howle

Michael Howle — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:12:24 +0000

Good one Ace. I’m sure the best approach when someone posts a tongue-in-cheek response to one of your comments is to just claim that they lack the cognitive ability to understand you.

What’s your next sophisticated argument, “liar, liar, pants on fire?”

(PLEASE NOTE: THE ABOVE COMMENTS CONTAIN SARCASM)

By: erick g

erick g — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:27:11 +0000

Really, I’m just going to end it here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/225383_sarcastic23.html

By: Johnny

Johnny — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:29:05 +0000

downtownparks, you forgot one other good opportunity to mess with traffic. All of what you said, plus First Baptist having a special service. Then downtown traffic would be awesome. We’d look like NYC for the day. How cool would that be!!??

By: Michael Howle

Michael Howle — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:42:14 +0000

I live downtown (Springfield), and I don’t think that the Main St. bridge is lifted a disproportionate amount. In fact, I would characterize it as being raised rarely. And no, I am not out there with a clipboard recording lifts. This is just my observation.

In my humble opinion, if you have to wait at the bridge for 20 minutes, and that makes you 20 minutes late for an engagement, especially a judicial hearing, then you should have left the ‘ol office/home sooner.

Oh, and I am a proud owner of one of those “unnecessarily cumbersome boats” (a small sailboat).

Many bridge operators, if seeing more than one boat needing to pass, will wait until they are all close enough to pass with just one lift.

By: claytonbixby

claytonbixby — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:00:14 +0000

soxfan, sorry but no, boaters do not pay a fee for going through the bridges. Boaters have the right of way when it comes to bridges (boats were around before bridges), so a bridge must open when properly signaled. Now some places do have posted times that the bridge opens. In Miami for example the bridges work on a 1/2 hour schedule. They open on the 1/2 hour, so if you are in a boat you have to wait. But the Main Street bridge is an on demand bridge, so it will open anytime a boat needs it to.

By: skimbro

skimbro — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:30:50 +0000

There used to be a draw-bridge on I-freaking-95. It’s been less than ten years since they fixed that. I think planners at the time were having difficulty with their crystal balls, unimaginatively failing to foresee that there would be a million people in Jacksonville and about that many cars. Or perhaps the people who designed the Main Street Bridge were thinking even more long term, anticipating that it would only be a decade or two of true traffic inconvenience until we all get our jetpacks.

By: erick g

erick g — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:42:06 +0000

Thanks, Urban. I was somewhat speaking in jest, except for the part about the water. ;)

We’re agreed though. It looks a lot better now than it did pre-Super Bowl.

By: urbanlibertarian

urbanlibertarian — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:02:06 +0000

eric g,
The bridge was opened in about 1925. Bridge technology was more primitive then. And IMHO it’s too beautiful to replace now with a new one.