John & Anne Wiley

I like old railroad bridges. Some are truly magnificent, but even the more “ordinary” steel ones have a romance for me. The whole metaphor of a bridge as connecting people and places is of course powerful. Another factor for me is that when riding trains the best views are often in those brief moments when you’re on a bridge. Now that we fly, those fleeting bridge views pale in comparison with what we see for every moment of every flight. Even so, I now enjoy looking down at the bridges as we pass them.

2919 Western Bridge

This one’s close to Point Conception, near the Western end of the Santa Barbara coast where the rails turn toward the North and only a few people not riding Amtrak ever see it. Closer to home is this one still on the private ranch land where many mansions have been built in recent years.

2920 Lonely Bridge

Other than every train going to points North, and the few who drive this end of the private ranch to and from their homes, some surfers probably know this bridge best. The next one is more popular with them though, because we see cars parked here on most of our flights along that private coast.

2924 Surfer Bridge

There’s something very “California” about a surfer bridge. An iconic one of those is the longer railroad bridge across the public Gaviota Beach next to the popular pier below the bend in Highway 101.

2927 Gaviota Bridge

Freight trains cross all these bridges of course, as beach campers on this coast well know from their late night rumbling passage. But I mostly think of the passenger trains with most people crowded on the South side gasping when the expansive views from beaches out to the island whip past on each bridge crossing.

2949 Amtrak Near Refugio

We saw this one clickety clack along the water just East of Refugio beach and campground. Maybe some day I’ll get excited about train rides again, but for now I’d rather be flying looking down at them and back in time to memories over the years. The first I remember was going to San Diego as a small child and more thrilled by seeing the long curve to each end of the train at every gentle bend in the track, than by the bridge glimpses I enjoyed in later years. Trains are much shorter now, and made even smaller for me by this aerial perspective. Now it’s the bridges more than the trains, that capture my imagination.

Was it Johnny Carson who said his dentist’s name was Phil McCavity? Well as you may know this distinctive peak above Santa Barbara reminds me of a dental work so I call it Tooth Rock. It even has several “cavities” on the face. OK, it’s true I intended to stop sharing 3D pix here but I really like how the shape and cavities stand out.

3884 3D Tooth Rock

Again, to view it look at the line in the center and gradually cross your eyes until you see three photos side by side and then focus on the peak as you cross or uncross your eyes slightly to bring together the two images of the peak in the center of the three photos you see with your eyes crossed. Once you learn to do this it’s quick and easy, and it’s great fun to look at the pix.
Here’s a frontal view of the rock, that shows the caves better. Especially in 3D!

3887 3D Tooth Face

This is more the view from town, where it looks like a conical tooth shape. In the first pic at the top, you can see it’s actually a thick slab of rock. The second pic is fuzzy at the top-right because the angle on the hills behind changes so much between the two pics that make it 3D.

Having seen it close up like this, often when I look at it from town now I can imagine us up there with friends sipping wine and watching the sunset. Later quiet guitar and singing around a small campfire during the wet season. Maybe sleeping in the big cave at the base and watching the stars whirl by outside the opening. Surely many people have spent time there over the ages. Their enchantment there has captured my imagination, and resonates in my soul.

What is it that stirs in us when we see something from a bygone era? In the case of this staple feature in Solvang, maybe it’s the fading shadows of a simpler life?

2569 Solvang Windmill

Perhaps the way it evokes the culture and values of an entire region? Or in the case of this one in Buellton, maybe it’s the road movie that created a tourist boom that still persists in the valley.

2574 Sideways Motel

More evocative for me is this old highway bridge nearby, now abandoned next to the 101 freeway. Did my family cross that span when I was a small California child?

2580 Shadow Crossing

In the shadows beneath, life fades into memory along with the last glimmer on water moving inexorably to take its molecule of stone from the gorge at Gaviota and blend back into the sea of time.