Happy New Year! 2014

Cooper River Bridges - old and new, Charleston, S.C.

Happy New Year kids! Thanks for hanging in there with me through 2013. Your comments and emails certainly added pleasure to my year. Now we have a whole new year to play with. Let's try to make it interesting. I enjoyed a lovely early dinner out at Rue de Jean last night with a group of friends. It was the perfect way to end the year. Now, after a lazy morning, I am heading out for my first walk in the new year.

Cheers to a new year. May it bring good things to you and your loved ones.

The photo is one of the last cars over the old Cooper River Bridges before they were demolished. They had a parade of vintage cars cross over before they put the barricades up.

Down memory lane - led by Grace

Grace Memorial Bridge, Charleston, S.C.

Here is a trip down memory lane for you. The photo above was taken when a parade of Model A Ford's were the first cars over the new Grace Memorial bridge crossing the Cooper River in 1929. When the bridge was closed in 2005 to make way for the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, a parade of vintage cars were the last to cross it.

I waited on the Mt. Pleasant side to get a re-enactment of the earlier view but the vehicles came across the bridge one by one with passengers waving, celebrating and taking pictures so it didn't work out quite the same. Still, it was a festive occasion and I'm glad I was there to capture it.

Does anyone else remember the old rickety roller coaster ride of a bridge? Nothing beats Frank Starmer's photo story of the building of the new Cooper River bridge and demolition of the old ones. The opening of the bridge and fireworks display was just grand and felt like a city wide party.