“A bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.” (IMDB.com)

Photo by Maire Kelly

So what has a 1974 film starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, and George Kennedy have to do with walking the bridge I hear you ask? Well, nothing actually, it’s just the way my mind works and whilst ruminating on what to say about the May BridgeWalk this film title crossed my mind as I recalled the cracks of lightning and the claps of thunder which accompanied our event this month. There is also the reference to “a gang” aka band of enthusiastic BridgeWalkers and “Lightfoot” which signifies to me the feeling of urgency to get over the bridge and finished without being hit by a “Thunderbolt”.
Like I said earlier – it’s just the way my mind works.

Is there also a hint of the Stockholm syndrome at work here:

In psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is an apparently paradoxical psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them. (Wikipedia.org)

And what do I have in mind here? Well although I have had expressions of support at previous events and there is a regular band of BridgeWalkers who support the event, there was a noticeable excitement and camaraderie surrounding the aftermath of our exciting adventure this month. As has been commented on the Facebook page:

“we can literally say, we walked and survived the walk”

Photo by Marc A Carter

First timers were exhilarated and determined to come back next month bringing friends with them to experience the walk (minus the thunderstorm!) Thus my reference to Stockholm Syndrome – walkers who experienced the wrath of nature whilst on the bridge now have “positive feelings towards” the bridge. Also when everyone arrived back at Heritage Park, soaking wet, many folks stayed and exchanged bridge walking stories with their fellow walkers whilst enjoying the music of Barbara and David Brown and brunch by Desiree’s Restaurant.

Here is a video taken at the height of the storm.

Despite the weather problems it was a fun family event and many of us are looking forward to June 3rd and the next event.

Suggested signage

Today was an interesting day for me. In the morning I met with the City’s Traffic Engineering Department to discuss the possibility of placing permanent signs on the BridgeWalk route so that we can turn it into a “documented” event which can be undertaken either as the monthly organized event or by individuals and groups as and when they feel like it. (Once the maintenance work is completed which now looks like being at the end of May 2012)

In the afternoon the July 4th Special Event Committee and various other interested parties took a bus tour from One Shoreline Plaza to Whataburger Field, the proposed marshalling point for the July 4th Event, and then over the bridge to North Beach and back again.

Stopped at the top of the bridge

The bus was kindly provided by the CCRTA who will be helping with the transport of people to and from the bridge event and we had a police escort front and back. This enabled us to slowly drive over the bridge stopping at strategic points to take photographs and assess how and where we will be placing people on the bridge for the event.

This is going to be an exciting and historic event; something many may wish to take part in if only to tell their grandchildren - “we took part in the big Fourth of July Bridge Sway Event of 2012″

If you are interested in participating individually, or by organizing a group to participate, please register your interest on the Special Event Page and the committee will be in touch as the event develops.

Here are the photographs from today’s outing:

Dr J after his walk over the bridge

… and the official Public Event “BridgeWalk April 8th” was cancelled due to holiday logistical problems. However I and my trusty companion “Dr Johnson” went to The Galvan House for 7:30am just to make sure that anyone who turned up for the walk was informed of the cancellation. We had also arranged to meet a few friends from Portland so that we could walk the bridge anyway. I had noted on Friday that the walkways were clear and so there was nothing to stop a private party undertaking the walk.

Photographs from our Easter Sunday walk are posted in the Media Photo Gallery:

In the mean time here are a couple of links to YouTube videos posted by one of our March 4th walkers, Mr Dominic Olivares of http://designznow.com/

• The Full Walk sped up version
• 2 Minute segment at normal speed

There is also another video on the BridgeWalk YouTube Channel of the February Bridge Light Show.

Alan Albin & Chad Magill at the top of the bridge

… fifty+ people gathered at Heritage Park to walk the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge. It was ideal weather, temperature in the 60′s, just enough wind to keep us cool, and a beautiful blue sky with great visibility. Opportunity abounded for participation in the new photographic competition so hopefully there will be a few entries to compete for the photo of the month prize – a BridgeWalk Club T-Shirt.

The bridge maintenance work is still in progress and I check in with TxDot before every walk to ensure that the contractors will have the walkways cleared of their work equipment prior to each walk. Unfortunately, on this occasion, there were a few orange barrels left on the Port side walkway. Although this was inconvenient it did not obstruct our progress and the walk was completed regardless.

We took the opportunity of a good clear day to create a “video” of the BridgeWalk; a photograph was taken every 100 yards and the result can be seen on the BridgeWalk YouTube Channel.

And speaking of this small world here is a photograph of the Harbor Bridge under construction as a ship passes under the raised Bascule Bridge. This is probably circa 1958/9 and was taken by my wife’s Uncle Bob. He gave it to me because he knows about my “obsession” with the Harbor Bridge.

Check out the BridgeWalk’s first video by clicking on the YouTube link at the top of the page or HERE - it’s a compilation of the Corpus Christi First weekend.

Please remember that the bridge is only open to the public at this time during official walks and so the next opportunity to walk over the Harbor Bridge will be March 4th.

Hope to see you all at the next event.