Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco - or Tower Bridge on London, the name alone evokes a vision of the country you have visited and remember fondly, or would love to visit. Many bridges have been immortalised in films. Bridge on the river Kwai. A bridge too far. When planning a trip you can enhance your journey by checking a map and noting landmarks you can see and photograph on the way.
A suspension bridge, often a road bridge suspended by cables from towers, is usually visually appealing. Many ancient cities are built on both banks of a river, at a time when boats were a major route for transport of people and goods, hence the big bridges are still landmarks of the world's major cities and an attraction for tourists.
UK
Heathrow for many American and European travellers is the gateway to the UK and Europe. From a window seat on a plane or in a helicopter arriving at London City airport you may be lucky enough to see a view of a bridge or even take a photo.
London, England
London's landmark is Tower Bridge. You can take a guided tour for a fee. But other London bridges lit at night are equally interesting to see and photograph.
Pedestrians in London can walk across the Millennium London footbridge to and from the Tate Modern Gallery. (Named after sponsor, the Tate family of Tate and Lyle sugar.) When first built the bridge bounced alarmingly. This problem was fixed.
Wembley Arch.
On the London train going north from Euston towards Watford (Harry Potter tour link) you pass Stonebridge Park station. From the window of train you will see the Wembley Arch over Wembley Stadium used for sporting events and pop concerts.
If you have arrived in London and hire a car, your nearest foreign country is Wales. Another popular detour requiring no passport is driving north, or taking the train to Scotland.
Wales
Trains and car journeys from London to Wales and Scotland pass over notable bridges. The Severn bridge leading into Wales from England has A line cables or struts. I made several journeys to Wales to Writers' Holiday near newport at Caerleon (famous for the Roman museum and amphitheatre). I found when driving solo I could not stop to take photos on the bridge and it would be dangerous to take a photo when driving. Even if I was prepared to risk my car and my life, or could see no traffic nearby, I was deterred by the speed cameras photographing my car.
I once passed my phone to my passenger but by the time she has worked out how to use my phone the view had passed. If you have a passenger, your passenger can be instructed how to use the camera or smart phone in advance. You may also find it useful to stop well in advance for a panorama of the bridge. Or even take it from the toll booth area where you can pull to one side in advance of the queues.
Scotland
In Scotland you have the Firth of Forth at Edinburgh and the Firth of Tay at Dundee. (You may like to read on your journey the infamous poem on the Tay bridge disaster which was such a dreadful poem that the author McGonagal has been famous every since.)
USA
Golden Gate Bridge is the most beautiful bridge in the world, say many people, especially those who live nearby or have visited it. The Golden Gate Bridge, such an alliterative name, easy to remember, easy to spell, positive. The design is elegant, the colour beautiful, as is the setting.
In America my favourite bridges were Golden Gale Bridge across San Francisco Bay on the West coast and the long Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel on the East coast south of New York and Washington DC if you drive down through Virginia towards Florida.
The older, smaller and romantic bridges, include the covered bridges in the USA. The trick is to get a horse and cart driven by the Amish driving through. You might have to wait to get a picture.
People and Dogs By Bridges
Add a person to your bridge photos to get scale. If you live near a bridge, people wearing the fashion of each year give you interesting pictures you could collect for historic accounts of your area or sell.
If you don't want clothes to date the picture, you could photograph a dog. That gives a sense of scale, something int he foreground, something in the centre, or off-centre, on the cross-points of a picture divided into thirds, which many purists prefer, and 'human interest'.
A running dog suggests enthusiasm. But you can't have a dog running through traffic or into dangerous water. An obedient dog which sits on command, or stands looking pensive, is ideal.
Panorama Photos
Really long bridges are too wide for many cameras but are tiny in height if you manage to get far away enough to include the full width. The panorama symbol on a smart phone enables you to scan slowly from right to left, or vice versa. When the picture appears on your screen is very wide with all the shots merged into wide view.
Europe
Driving through Europe, you often come across viaducts built from Roman times. A favourite photograph of Paris, Amsterdam and other cities is to show a tourist boat or dinner cruise boat with lights passing under a bridge or moored alongside.
Italy
Famous bridges include the bridge in Italy, Florence, with the shops. When you walk across the bridge you are encased by buildings and cannot take photos of the city at all, so plan your photos of the bridge before and after.
Mostar
The old hump back bridge at Mostar was destroyed in a recent war but has been restored. It is in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Spain
The Segovia viaduct in Segovia, Spain is viewed from the city and surroundings at several points.
Heritage Signs in France
If I am driving or walking I like to start my set of photos with a signpost. In France many town signs have symbols of the main landmark.
Going south, in the south of France the longest viaduct in the world is the Millou in the Massif Central. The bridge crosses at a great height the valley in which nestles the village of Millou.
Australia
While it is warm in Europe and the northern hemisphere, it is cool down under. Sydney harbour Bridge is dramatic and like many other bridges you can do guided or unguided walks. An area of the bridge may charge a toll even for foot passengers. But you can get a photo from a distance for free.
Singapore in Asia
The weather is the same heat all year in the tropics, but photographers beware of the rainy season (usually springtime, January/February/March in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand - when hotel prices drop and photographing indoor activities is a better bet than spending on tours to photograph places requiring non-stop sunshine).
On a sunny day, my favourite bridges in Asia are in Singapore where the road into the city from Changi airport passes under numerous bridges bedecked with flowers. Singapore has historical plaques on many bridges, such as the one in the city centre leading to the National museum. Further along the river if you take a river walk is the ultra-modern, colourful, multi-colour, painted pedestrian Akaff bridge. It was decorated in 2004. The late Filipino painter is memorialised with a plaque.
https://vimeo.com/40124027 (picture of painted bridge)
Research
You can look up bridges of the world in an online encyclopaedia such as Wikipedia. I once wrote an article on bridges for an encyclopaedia. You could collect photos of bridges.
Most countries have a notable bridge. You can take the best shots of it from a distance, often as you approach it. Don't wait. The sun goes in. The rain starts. Your return trip takes a different route. A double decker articulated lorry pulls in front of you.
Hotels
Hotels which hold weddings sometimes have a stream and a bridge. Disney has some hotels like this. Resort hotels with many swimming pools often have a bridge which makes a focal point. You can wait until a group lines up for a photo, or ask a photographic bystander to stand on the bridge. In case their ruin your shot by wearing clothes which date the photo, or they move and create camera shake, I also take a shot of the bridge without people.
Copyright
If you have one person featured in close up you need their permission to sell the photo, especially if you are on private land. If you have large groups of people on a public bridge in the UK you don't need permission. This varies from country to country. Contact the embassy of the country you are visiting before leaving. If you are an English speaker and you are visiting a country where you don't speak the language, it may be easier to contact the embassy in your homeland. This will save time. However, you are probably better off asking in the country if you can do so.
If you are giving a talk or slide show or even showing holiday snaps to friends or putting them on Facebook, a little research about your bridge can make the caption more interesting.
If you are romantic, you will find numerous bridges in posters and artwork in art galleries. However, if you like real life, or horror, you can see black and white photos and videos of a San Francisco bridge in the earthquake, buckling bridges and all kinds of disaster pictures. These make you grateful for all the efforts taken by workers doing the routine work to ensure your safety.
If you live or work in a small or dark room, you can decorate it with a poster made from one of your photos showing a bridge on a sunny day, so in your mind you are always walking out into the sunshine.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
