entry view of bridge

Here you can just barely sense the immenseness of the object in question. Note total lack of bike lanes or even shoulders.

view from object

Sanitary Shipping Canal and tracks viewed from the South Damen Street Bridge. Note chain link fence, which is actually a part of the object itself.

View from Object 2

View of my favorite building and Chicago Skyline also showing the harrowing lanes of the Damen Street Bridge, including some fast moving traffic. Surely you can tell how fast that traffic is moving.

View from Object 3

The bridge spans lots of railroad tracks, as foreshadowed by this sign.

plaque

Taken on the night of praxis, the bridge's label right next to where we hung the note. Notice the bridge was built in the year 2001. Yes, folks, a bridge built on a median arterial street in the middle of the city of chicago. It was built after bike maps and critical mass and talk of peak oil had begun, but yes, they still built it with NO bike lanes, no shoulders, no pedestrian crossing lights, and very precariously placed stop lights.

the sign

Which brings us to the note itself. As you can see from the arm of my real time co-collaborator, "Q", it is a very large note. The bridge is nearly 10 blocks long, so it seemed reasonable to leave a note on extra large poster board. Particularly since no pedestrians ever cross this bridge seeing as they would be terrified of their lives to do so.

note placement

Here is the note in context. Note the bridge plaque to the right of the sign. Also, note the shadow of the favorite building pictured in the previous daylight photos. The gaurd rail which trails off to the right leads to a highway entrance ramp, which accounts for the speed of the traffic on the bridge itself. I suppose people tend to forget they have left the interstate and entered a median arterial street. Pity them, for they will miss the fabulous views from the bridge.

note from a distance

Here is a note viewed from across 5 lanes of traffic.

next day

Riding my bicycle to work the following afternoon, i found that the note was still intact, and only slightly windblown. Yesterday, which was 2 more days after this picture was taken, and also the date of a snow storm, there was still a corner of the now soggy note attached. 20 feet later on the sidewalk was the wet note. I was not able to take a picture of that because, well, i was in a car that time so naturally i was going 80 miles per hour.