What catches your eye? A huge structure? A tiny flower? A rushing river? Crashing waves of the ocean? What makes one better over the other?
The Astoria Bridge, shown here, is a fascinating bridge! It's 4.1 miles across the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon, and Point Ellice, Washington. It's quite an amazing bridge and is unlike any other.
From the Astoria side, the ramp curves a full 360 degrees and climbs to 200 feet above the water (at low tide) in a very short distance.
And from the Washington side, it feels like you are driving on a long low bridge until past the midway point where it starts rising up into the bridge structure of LOTS of metal framework and into the height of the bridge. When you reach the land, you are high up and quickly descend on this curving ramp that takes you around in a circle and you come to a stop at a T intersection.
The Pacific Northwest has brutal storms off the Pacific Ocean so the bridge had to be designed to withstand up to 150 miles per hour gusts of wind! AND allow for ocean faring ships to slide underneath - which they do at the south end of the bridge.
It really is an amazing structure finished in July 1966. Critics first called it the "Bridge to Nowhere", but it has become a vital passageway that cuts off a lot of miles for drivers that want to get between Oregon and Washington along the coast. By 1993, over 1.6 million vehicles were crossing it in a year, making it invaluable to those who use it, and is linked to the Mexico-to-Canada highway system.
This huge project connects two pieces of land in a beautiful part of this country. God's grandeur of ocean, river, mountains, hills, trees, flowers, and wildlife all converge here to make this an amazing place to be. Plus you get to experience all sorts of weather in short periods of time! Fog, wind, drizzle, and sun appear to be in this weather dance throughout the day.
Astoria, OR, offers museums and historical landmarks that make it a fun destination point for families and especially history buffs. Cargo ships are coming and going to load and unload, or both, and the river seems to be constantly busy!
There are steep, straight streets on the hills of Astoria that will remind you of San Francisco, CA, with interesting houses, and beautiful scenery.
Manmade structures. Amazing, they can be! Yet, with all the abilities we have come up with to build great bridges to connect humanity, we cannot make improvements on creating a simple rose.
Oh, I know that we have made changes to the existing species, but what I'm talking about, is that we cannot engineer from scratch a beautiful rose. The fragrance comes from within, and each has its own special uniqueness. Not copy-able.
Yesterday I trimmed my roses and cut these that you see, here. It isn't a perfectly shaped bouquet, as I just put them in this jar as I cut them. Didn't plan them out, but they are fragrant and amazing!
Might be a stretch to compare roses with a bridge, but the principle is that nature always is far more amazing that the best man can create. Hands down, I think God's grandeur is shown in the smallest things.
Mountains are amazing, and so is a butterfly. A firefly. A river. Clouds that morph and change as you watch them. Wind blowing on prairie grass, resembling ocean waves. Bumble bees and honey bees. Trees and birds and all the flowers. Yes, the flowers. Roses. One of my favorites. : )
Psalm 19:1-6 "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat." ESV
Who is like our God? No one can compare!
Job 36:26 "Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly." ESV
These links are to products in my online store, Loraine's Faith Place: