Field Trip to a Bridge

Aspen seedlings

 You wouldn't usually find aspen seedlings growing on a bridge. But our bridge - the one on Main Street that links one side of town with the other - has trees growing on it. Flowers, too.

You see, our bridge is closed. Has been for months. The Dept. of Transportation has deemed it unsafe to drive on at any speed - though it's perfectly usable for bicycles and skateboards and just walking across. So they plan to tear it down this fall, sometime soon, and begin building a new bridge.

fleabane asters

Meanwhile, things have started to grow in the cracks and crevices. It makes me wonder what the bridge might look like if it were allowed to undergo "succession" over the next couple decades. Would we have a forest growing across the river?









Here are a few more flowers I saw this week:

small flowered willow herb

What sort of things do you find growing between the cracks of sidewalks and along the sides of the roads in your town? What plants are moving in on abandoned parking lots? Do you have an old bridge that's closed? What's growing on it?

primrose

Take a camera or a sketchbook and some colored pencils and spend some time checking out what's living in the cracks and crevices of your neighborhood.

Check out other STEM Friday posts here.