Going down

The piers holding up the Hwy. 80 bridge across the Mississipppi River bridge in Vicksburg are hollow, did you know that? I didn't until I was offered the chance by bridge superintendent Herman Smith to climb down into one. The photos you see here are of one of his employees going down the ladder to the bottom of the pier. At the bottom of the pier I climbed into is a bob the bridge crew uses to measure movement of the bridge. That's it in the second photo.

It's cramped down at the bottom. There is some murky water below the platform where you stand to observe the bob. It's also hot, hotter than I have been in quite a while. While we were down there, a towboat and a load of barges passed overhead. I just knew the thing was heading straight for the pier! It was so loud down there. I was glad to get back to the surface. Other photos here show the view from underneath the roadbed.