The BP Pedestrian Bridge is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, it opened along with the rest of Millennium Park on July 16, 2004. Gehry had been courted by the city to design the bridge and the neighboring Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and eventually agreed to do so after the Pritzker family funded the Pavilion. Named for energy firm BP, which donated $5 million toward its construction, it is the first Gehry-designed bridge to have been completed. BP Bridge is described as snakelike because of its curving form. Designed to bear a heavy load without structural problems caused by its own weight, it has won awards for its use of sheet metal. The bridge is known for its aesthetics, and Gehry's style is seen in its biomorphic allusions and extensive sculptural use of stainless steel plates to express abstraction. The pedestrian bridge serves as a noise barrier for traffic sounds from Columbus Drive. It is a connecting link between Millennium Park and destinations to the east, such as the nearby lakefront, other parts of Grant Park and a parking garage. It is designed without handrails, using stainless steel parapets instead. The total length is 935 feet (285 m), with a five percent slope on its inclined surfaces that makes it barrier free and accessible to all. Although the bridge closes in winter because ice cannot be safely removed from its wooden walkway, it has received favorable reviews for its design and aesthetics.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP_Pedestrian_Bridge
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
War of the Fifth Coalition: Austrian forces under Archduke Charles prevented Napoleon I and his French troops from crossing the Danube near Vienna at the Battle of Aspern-Essling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aspern-Essling
1826:
HMS Beagle departed on its first voyage from Plymouth for a hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of South America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Beagle
1960:
The Great Chilean Earthquake, measuring 9.5 Mw, devastated Valdivia, Chile, and generated destructive tsunamis that reached Hawaii the following day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Valdivia_earthquake
1964:
During a speech at the University of Michigan, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the goals of his Great Society domestic social reforms to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
1972:
Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and officially became a republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka
1980:
Pac-Man, an arcade game that became virtually synonymous with video games and an icon of 1980s popular culture, made its debut in Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
reveille (n): The sounding of a bugle or drum early in the morning to awaken soldiers http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reveille
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable. --Arthur Conan Doyle http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle