Tunnel Vision – Monroe Street Bridge Construction

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THIS VIDEO WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 2, OF 2004 – I am republishing it today in a higher quality format than was possible at that time. As it happens, today is the 49th anniversary of the historic moon landing that Werner Von Braun was of course instrumental in achieving. As mentioned below in the original content, this bridge sits immediately in front of the Von Braun Civic Center located in downtown Huntsville, Alabama. It is worthy of note, building this bridge certainly did not take a rocket scientist, however, I think you will agree when viewing the video that the skill and acumen of the engineers and workers is fantastic.

Construction of the new downtown Embassy Suites hotel includes a major makeover for Big Spring Park around the Von Braun Civic Center.

Seen in the video presented here is the restructuring of Monroe Street in front of the Von Braun Civic Center. A new Venetian style bridge is being built for traffic to flow over, and a new canal extension of the Big Spring to flow under.

Much attention and public discord has been focused on the Triad Office development on the north side of Big Spring Park where a new seven story building is set for construction that will eventually block the vista and encroach on Big Spring Park. However, it is interesting to note that in spite of the Mayor’s optimistic projections for additional park space as a result of the Hotel construction (most of which will be impracticable for public access from Big Spring), a great deal of park space is being swallowed into the widening and reworking of Monroe Street.

ABOUT THE VIDEO
The video has been edited and rendered to be seen at about four times faster than normal — making it just less than a minute long. The entire process of lifting and moving the prefab arch into place only took about six minutes total. Once the individual arch supports were put into place over the canal, the workmen then took additional time to again lift each individual arch and carefully move it exactly into it’s final position. Even though the initial placement of each support took only a few minutes, the entire process took most of the day to complete to it’s present point.