Lake Pontchartrain Causeway on Modern Marvels

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

Whenever I am feeling lazy and I want to get my steps for the day. I take a drive to Metairie. Yeah, my toll tag take takes a hit but I get healthier.

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The logistics and engineering behind the building of bridges, dams, underwater tunnels, power plants, massive skyscrapers, etc. never ceases to amaze me. I am too much of a dumbass to even contemplate being able to achieve something like that.

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Wait until you find out there are people who think we build these things and don't account for curvature of the earth.

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dams, underwater tunnels, power plants, massive skyscrapers, etc. never ceases to amaze me. I am too much of a dumbass to even contemplate being able to achieve something like that.

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We won’t argue your last point.

I have a business friend who’s a structural engineer specializing in bridge construction and renovation. He told me that some historical bridges are a mish-mash of some components or characteristics being under-built and others being grossly overbuilt.

He specifically mentioned the concrete piers for the Huey Long Bridge from the early 1930s. The piers were built to last at least 100 years with two purposes in mind: to carry the load of the bridge with attendant traffic and to withstand the impact from a down bound loaded ship (that’s the worst scenario). According to him, they are grossly overbuilt for the loading scenario even with wind loads added. Now with Panamax-sized ships, there’s less of a safety factor for collision.

So there’s some added risk we (society) take because the Panama Canal increased its lock-able capacity.

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Now with Panamax-sized ships, there’s less of a safety factor for collision.

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Should be infinite since Panamax ships can't ever get to that bridge

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Wait until you find out there are people who think we build these things and don't account for curvature of the earth.

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That is what a change order is for or a little more dirt on the other side…LOL

Just kidding engineers know their stuff.

Except for the ones that designed the old Huey. Everyone remembers that sharp point on the Eastbank where the bridge didn’t line up with the super structure over the river. It is gone now that it was widened to 6 lanes with shoulders.

Always blows my mind whenever crossing the Causeway how you can't see the other side on the horizon until well past 5-6 miles in when you can start to make out the NOLA skyline.

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I want to get my steps for the day. I take a drive to Metairie. Yeah, my toll tag take takes a hit but I get healthier.

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I know this would screw up traffic, but a Causeway Marathon Run sounds like a fun event, not that I am fit enough to run one. I probably wouldn’t even make it to the bridge.

Just have to find 2 more miles to get it to marathon standards of 26.2 miles.

Start at Rouses on Causeway Approach and end at Lakeside Mall. You are close 26.2 miles, and you can make that up in the back streets.

Thanks for sharing that!

A few points:

1. The episode is a little off in that they sort of pushed the idea that the Causeway "made it easier for commuters". The plain truth was that before the 1st Causeway structure was built in 1956 there were NO "commuters" coming from Mandeville, Covington, etc. Those were sleepy little towns unto themselves. The Causeway created the rapid suburban growth of the north shore (and commuters) in that area, much as I-10 to the east opened up the growth of the Slidell area.

2. The old footage in this episode came from a neat documentary film that they showed us in 8th grade Louisiana History class back in 1977-78. I enjoyed it back then and enjoyed seeing it again in this episode.

3. Interesting fact-- that concrete bridge plant was used one more time to construct the pieces for the elevated I-10 roadway across the Atchafalaya Basin. They were shipped via barge a much longer distance of course, across the Lake, through the industrial canal, Mississippi River and GIWW to the Atchafalaya River.

4. Thankfully, the episode didn't repeat the false trope I've seen online that in the middle of the bridge, you can't see land on either side. The opposite is true-- in the middle of the bridge you can easily see land, trees, buildings (especially the Lakeway III complex and the New Orleans skyline) on BOTH sides.