In the countryside in my region of The Netherlands there are a great many brooks and streams. In the old days, these were simply forded by the farmers getting to their lands, but a few centuries ago, they started to bridge them.
Hundreds of little bridges were built, and many have survived for centuries, and ... nobody looks at them anymore. I must admit they aren't spectacular buildings to look at, yet they are an important part of the countryside's history. The photos aren't spectacular either, but I am going to show them anyway, just because I like finding and showing overlooked old things.
This one is in sandstone, which means it is probably well over a century old, but still serving its purpose well:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 85mm, ISO1600, f8, 1/15s
A more recent one, made out of bricks:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 50mm, ISO800, f4, 1/20s
It's a funny idea to have been crossing little hidden bridges thousands of times, without ever noticing them.
Love the black and white images. All the old fashioned work in them is amazing. Boggles the mind when something is around for that long, and that they still work. Glad you are taking photos of them. A series in BW would be nice. Thanks for sharing.
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It means they have really settled in and become part of the landscape. It drives home to me, too, how stable your weather is, and your watershed, too. Here, choosing the right size culvert can be guesswork, and the engineering approach is "fix on failure". As our land gets developed, the runoff goes up, and little culverts like that just get washed out, or clogged with debris and then washed out.
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Much land was developed here four to five centuries ago, so that gives some stability, and water has been managed here for very long as well. The Dutch can't seem to look at any body of water without thinking about managing it 8-). The whole system combined can take many times the average amount of water and get it to the nearest river.
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haha -- I just have to laugh. Some of the best river forecasting software comes out of the Netherlands, too! That's a long time to have stability in land development! But it takes climate stability, too. Other parts of Europe have seen some tough flooding of areas that haven't flooded for centuries, though, with some extreme storms over the last few years. Keep those culverts clear! : )
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What's also interesting is people so long ago cared enough to make a bridge or tunnel rather than hamper natures way. ^^ it's a good sign.
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I like it!
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Thanks!
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These are called 'culverts' in English
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