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San Josin

Staying close to home

By Carl Fisher

May 13^th, 2020

Spring has sprung

As is usual for this time of year, I was itching to get out and take pics of things in bloom. Mind you, this is the California Bay area, so there's always something blooming. But, as in most places, there is always a greater proliferation in the Spring. Unfortunately, just as things were getting promising outdoors (based on what I was seeing outside my door), restrictions on movement were imposed due to the outbreak. I was no longer able to just hop in the car and head to some of the more popular parks in the area renowned for their floral displays. I could have been defiant and gone anyway, but I figured my health, and that of the community, were just not worth risking. So I glumly accepted that I would be restricted to wanderings close to home. But it turns out things are not as bleak as I had imagined. I didn't really need to go that far afield to find color. It was only a few blocks away. All I had to do was grab my trusty camera and keep the requisite distance.

Bridge over calm waters

On my quest to find all the bike paths in my neighborhood, I stumbled upon what looked to be an abandoned bridge. It was fenced off at both ends and it clearly looked like you were not supposed to be on it. It was also evident that not everyone heeded signs because there were definite signs of trespass. And I could see that persons were camped out underneath one of its ends. While I was briefly tempted to go down and say hello, I quickly came to my senses and decided to loop around to the less densely inhabited other side to examine it more closely. It indeed was an abandoned bridge, but I was curious as to why it had been abandoned. It was one of those cool, old trestle type of bridges that used to be everywhere (at least they were in the movies). There was definitely some history here, but there were no plaques to enlighten me. Fortunately, a local (I was pretty sure she lived in a house and not one of the nearby tent structures) wandered down with her dog as I was attempting to capture the scene and provided some insight. Apparently, the fate of the bridge was tied up in the courts. The city wants to tear it down and build a concrete one to replace it while a local group wants to preserve it. It would be cheaper to just tear it down, especially after a small fire charred parts of it. This new info inspired me to want to document what I could of the old structure before it (most likely) gets torn down.

Outdoor storage? Hard to beat the price.

Underpass

Abandoned

One benefit of only using my bike to get around these days (I have to get exercise somehow) is that I'm starting to get to know the city a lot better. And not having many people around to pollute my camera frame is another plus. I'm not really much of a people photographer anyway and those whom I did encounter out and about recently tended to be of the more down trodden type. I think they could potentially be quite interesting subjects with some fascinating stories, but they could just as easily have some deep emotional issues that might be triggered by my approach, resulting in a less than desired outcome. Besides, I don't want folks to accuse me of exploiting those less fortunate to boost my number of followers (although if the boost was really big...). So, I stuck to the inanimate.