Only Three In The World

At the Fort Knox State Historic Site in Prospect, Maine, there is something you won't see every day. And unless you venture here, you may never see such a thing ever. The new bridge over the Penobscot River houses a bridge based observatory. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory to be exact. Some 41 months under construction, it rises not unlike the Washington Monument some 42 stories above the river. Yet it is the primary arch pin and support for the bridge across the river. Technologically, it is a marvel and even has its own innovative nitrogen gas protection system to protect it from the effects of moisture and other corrosive elements. There are enough epoxy-covered strands that make up the cables that would stretch 331 miles- enough to go from Portland to Fort Kent. The list of bridge and observatory facts is simply amazing. The bridge and observatory are artistically striking, to say the very least.

Sometimes the most amazing moments are achieved when you realize a dream. When you do something you always wanted to do. Or saw something you always wanted to see. But, for sure, that is not what happened here. I already admitted to not liking heights. Honestly, I'm a "scare-dee-cat". I didn't really want to go up that tall, skinny, intimidating, swaying in the breeze tower in the first place! But in truth, sometimes those amazing moments come along when you force yourself to do those things you feel the most uncomfortable doing. And if not now, when? And if not here, where? The only other such structures in the entire world are in Thailand and in Slovakia- and I'm pretty sure I'm not going there! At least not in the motorcoach!

It was breath-taking. It was exhilarating. And the fast cat elevator ride to the tippy top wasn't half as bad as I expected. Well, maybe half- but no more than half. I'm happy I went to the top. And I am equally happy to have made it down before today's thunder storm rolled on in- as I could see it coming in the distance from way up there....

Views Over, Under, Sideways, Down