Notes from the road May 2, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Businesses, Movies, Museums, Preservation, Television.5 comments
Kim Benoit of Montreal has created a miniature version of the fictional Route 66 town of Radiator Springs, seen in the 2006 Disney/Pixar animated movie “Cars.” Here are the photos that Benoit sent:
Well done, I’d say.
— The owners of Seaba Station on Route 66 near Warwick, Okla., seek to reopen the historic auto repair shop as a motorcycle museum by July at the latest. They’d hoped to be open by 2009, but the downtown in the economy slowed the project. Seaba Station is is looking for someone to operate a restaurant within the space, although that will probably occur later after it opens.
— The Samantha Brown TV show on the Travel Channel starts its new season this week, and the episode that features Cool Springs Camp between Kingman and Oatman, Ariz., will air on May 20, according to Cool Springs owner Ned Leuchtner.
— Laurel Kane of Afton Station in Afton, Okla., reported a couple of weeks ago in her blog that the roof on the historic Bassett’s Grocery collapsed, destroying the building’s interior. Fortunately, no one was in the building at the time. The building was constructed in 1911, and Bassett’s opened there in 1922.
— Kevin Hansel, former president of the California Route 66 Association, reports that the Iron Hog Saloon in Oro Grande, Calif., soon will reopen as a restaurant and bar. The building had been for sale for some time.
A history of Suicide Bridge May 1, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, History.5 comments
The Pasadena Star-News published a well-researched story about the historic and architecturally significant Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, Calif.
Not only is it known as a 1913 bridge that once carried Route 66, but also is notorious for being called Suicide Bridge. More than 150 people have died by jumping off the span.
One local legend about the bridge is that a worker fell into the cement during construction and co-workers were unable to remove his body from the mixture. The worker’s spirit, the legend goes, continues to haunt the bridge. [...]
It was during the Great Depression that the Colorado Street Bridge earned the nickname “Suicide Bridge.” Dozens of men and women took their life at the site, according to historical records maintained at Pasadena Central Library. [...]
In all, officials estimate that 79 people jumped to their deaths from the bridge in the early 1930s.
It still is a place where distraught people commit suicide. Two more were reported there last month.
Even so, it wouldn’t be easy to jump off the bridge. On top of a 4-foot railing, a steel gate brings the guard rail’s total height to about 8 feet. It would seem that it would be more effort to commit suicide from the Colorado Street Bridge than to seek professional help.
The Colorado Street Bridge isn’t the only span that became a suicide magnet. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has seen more than 1,200 since the bridge opened in 1937.