Gabe recently had an outing on the Big Dam Bridge- a pedestrian/bicycle bridge that crosses the Arkansas river right at the Murray Lock and Dam. Gabe gave his seal of approval.
The Bridge is really tall and stretches across the water for about 3/4 of a mile. As [BigDamBridge.com] puts it:
The Big Dam Bridge is the world’s longest pedestrian and bicycle bridge built and designed specifically for that purpose. Located over Murray Lock and Dam, The Pulaski County Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge has a 14-foot wide deck that extends 3,463 feet across the Arkansas River. The $12.5 million bridge ties together 17 miles of scenic river trails in Little Rock and North Little Rock and will eventually connect with 7,000 acres of various city, county, state and federal park land.
Gabe’s big Christmas present was a fancy new jogging stroller, complete with a shocks and all. Here’s a shot of him taking it for its first cruise in the house- he was so excited he lost a sock:
So Mom and Dad sprung for the stroller and skipped getting the little guy any toys, as we had a hunch that the family might shower him with plenty of toys. Good hunch- here is Gabe rocking out with a little piano that came from the Anderson/Whites of Virginia, one of several cool toys he got from the family:
This past weekend had fairly mild weather for January, and the whole family seemed to be finally healthy enough to go for a walk. I hadn’t been on the The Big Dam Bridge yet, so it was a perfect opportunity to give Gabe a ride in his stroller and take in the sights.
We happened to arrive at the bridge while a tugboat was pushing several barges through the lock. The tug was coming from the high side of the dam, moving the barges to the low side. The pedestrian bridge is in the background and it is easy to see how tall the span really is. It might not be obvious at first glance, but the second picture shows the flags on the bridge are at half mast, as a mark of respect for President Gearld Ford, who died in late December.
Here a shot from the other side of the bridge, looking west. A few of the barges already transferred through the lock are at the bottom of the picture. The flat topped mountain in the distance is [Pinnacle Moutain], a very nice park with multiple trails to the top, one which is challenging and reminiscent of some of the [AT] trails near Blacksburg, VA.
The bridge itself is very nice, very family friendly. We saw tons of kids, people walking, people on bicycles, people rollerblading, some kid of this crazy little contraption that the kid made go forward by twisting a steering wheel attached to the front wheels back and forth. The little contraption was really neat- I wish I had a picture of the little kid making it go- he was sort of tacking back and forth, except moving fast enough so the motion approximated a straight line.
