Of Bridges and Valleys and Taking the Road More Traveled

On June 10th, my class met at 7:00am to pile into two white University of Delaware mini vans and hit the road for a week-long trip to Virginia and the Carolinas. My van was piloted by Professor Tom Guiler, and I shared it with my classmates Brooke, Kate, and RJ. Over the next week we drove 1732 miles, heading first south-west through the Shenandoah Valley, before turning towards Charleston, SC, our southern-most stop.  From there we headed north, returning to Delaware late on the evening of the 16th. For me this journey was a true road trip. As we traveled between museums and historic sites, I drew connections about the places we visited by thinking about the roads and bridges which connected them.

Throughout our first day on the road, as we drove I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley, I was entranced by the landscape. Reminiscent of my home state of Vermont (and, in fact, part of the same 480 million-year-old mountain-range), the hills on either side of the valley sheltered the busy highway. Watching through my driver’s-side window, I saw trucks drive north, or “down” the valley (the Shenandoah River runs south to north, provoking many a disagreement about which way is “up”). These haulers of freight were, like us, driving the old wagon road which had once helped European settlers make homes in the Carolinas. It felt powerful that our first leg on a journey to study the history and material culture of the South took place along this three-hundred-year-old road.

Shenandoah Roadscape: The view out the van window combined stunning views of early summer, with the small towns, farms, and industrial sites of the Shenandoah Valley, and of course the busy north-bound lane of I-81!

 

Three days later we found ourselves driving through Charleston, SC. We were en route to our hotel in Mount Pleasant, which sits north of Charleston on the other side of the Cooper River. As I checked our progress on my phone’s mapping app, I noticed how the South Carolina coastline was fractured by rivers and bays, occasionally forming deltas. When the map indicated that the Cooper River was imminent, I looked up to see a magnificent suspension bridge ahead of us. Converging on it from, as it seemed, all sides, were broad ribbons of concrete. Delighted, I announced to the van: “Look! A road delta!” After half a week in close quarters, (not to mention a year of shared courses and intertwining lives), I succeeded in amusing, if not surprising, my van-mates with this comment.

After our third time crossing the Arthur J. Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, I really wanted a photo of it, but couldn’t get a good shot from the back seat. I passed my phone up to our co-pilot, Brooke Baerman, who surprised me by narrating this little video as we approached the bridge.

 

But I hadn’t cracked the comment as a joke; seeing eight roads converge tells you something important about the landscape. The Great Wagon Road was significant because it ran between two mountain ranges, making it the only effective way to get between two points. The same was true of the Arthur J. Ravenel Jr. Bridge, connecting Charleston to Mount Pleasant. The bridge was a defining feature of Charleston for me. We crossed it almost half a dozen times, a fact which indicates how central it is to moving around the area. I would not have considered that at all, however, except that it was also beautiful. My classmate Carrie pointed out that bridges, and suspension bridges in particular, often become landmarks of their cities. In this way the bridge was, for me, a symbol of the trip. It embodied our goals of exploring design, as well as understanding how ideas, motifs, and materials were able to move from one part of America, and the world, to another.

The Bridge: The Arthur J. Ravenel Jr. Bridge (not the Arvur Ravel Bridge!) is even more magnificent seen from the road deck than it is from a distance! Narration courtesy of Brooke Baerman and Professor Tom Guiler.

 

When road tripping it is always worth considering the roads. When you set out on a trip with the express purpose of studying material culture and history, there is value in taking a moment and look back at how we got where we are today, and the bridges which were built to get us there.

 

By Eliza West, WPAMC Class of 2019



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