Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

single frame: The 30th Street bridge

Jim Grey
11 comments on single frame: The 30th Street bridge
1 minute
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30th St. Bridge

The 30th Street bridge
Canon EOS A2e, 50mm f/1.8 Canon EF
Kodak Tri-X 400
2016

The condition of this bridge breaks my heart a little. Built in 1907 and last rehabilitated in 1979, this concrete-arch bridge carries 30th Street over the White River in Indianapolis. But its railings are crumbling, and tall weeds grow through every crack in the pedestrian walkway.

I suppose a city the size of Indianapolis can’t perfectly maintain all of its infrastructure. But we are fortunate to have a number of ornate concrete-arch bridges in our city, and I wish they were first in line for maintenance.

Comments

11 responses to “single frame: The 30th Street bridge”

  1. J P Cavanaugh Avatar
    J P Cavanaugh

    A beautiful view! Although I have driven over this bridge many times, I have never gotten out of the car to try the walkway.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      The two activities do tend to be mutually exclusive when crossing a bridge!

      Reply
  2. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    This is pretty sad that they can’t even keep the best of the best and “classic” stuff up. Well, in a city where they stopped street-lighting, side-walking, and curbing in 1980….? You know, making a down town to look like almost every other “developer designed” down town in a medium sized city, while allowing vast lower-middle class and middle class neighborhoods run into the ground; is going to be a hard sell to astute companies trying to find a mid-west town to relocate to. A smart company that hires a firm to relocate them, will always look at the poorest and middle class neighborhoods to see what is up, rather that the “upper 10%” neighborhoods.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Unigov had many advantages for Indianapolis, but a disadvantage was an inability to well care for all the infrastructure the new city inherited. This bridge was part of the old city, but it looks to me like even the old city’s infrastructure suffered when suddenly the city grew to encompass the whole county.

      Reply
      1. Andy Umbo Avatar
        Andy Umbo

        People don’t believe it, but I tell them to do the math. After Uni-gov, Indianapolis proper was 144 square miles larger than Chicago proper! With the paper reporting that in the last decade, the cost of living has gone up 60% in Indy, while the salaries have only gone up 9%, and current middle income salaries roughly 30% less than Milwaukee, there’s going to be a difficult time trying to tax people enough to improve all the items like this bridge, and of course, “real” mass trans will never be able to be supported. Some of my pals that live in DC have already wondered if Indy isn’t going to be a “golden example” of the failure of the right-wing “non-tax” economy. You still have to pay people enough to live on and pay a decent tax to keep your city up! The recent failure of the “public-private” expressway project shows why you cannot cede municipal management to private industry that is only profit based.

        Makes me sad to see this stuff.

        Reply
        1. Jim Grey Avatar
          Jim Grey

          Even worse, the property tax caps in Indiana seriously hobble Indy. When those caps went into place the taxes on my inexpensive little house went down so much that I hardly pay anything, about $500 per year. I’m generally a political conservative but even I believe you have to have taxes sufficient to provide services.

          Reply
  3. Bill Bussell Avatar
    Bill Bussell

    This is in good condition compared to the Thomas Taggart Memorial close by. There are certainly many problems in this picture. It would be more noticeable with green weeds poking about.

    Reply
  4. Bill Bussell Avatar
    Bill Bussell

    I have read some ugly reasons why this nearby Taggart Memorial has been allowed to deteriorate. I will leave that alone because it might cause a heart attack. Here is a link. Fix the bridge, and the memorial. http://historicindianapolis.com/sunday-prayers-thomas-taggart-memorial/

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Sadness all around.

      Reply
  5. peggy Avatar
    peggy

    The contrast of the photograph matches well the somber reality of the structure.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Thanks! The word somber describes it well.

      Reply

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