Thursday: Penobscot Narrows Bridge & Observatory

Ok, on the Thursday, (30th August) which also happenned to be my birthday, Meg took me to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge & Observatory, and one of her favourite places just next to it, Fort Knox. (not THE Fort Knox with all the gold unfortunately, that's somewhere else in the States!!)

The Penobscot refers to the River it crosses, and is a Native American name meaning "where the river widens" or "where the white rocks are". The word "Penobscot" is actually a mis-pronunciation of their original tribal name which was "Penawapskewi". Even though this was a mistake by the English colonialists in pronunciation, they have adopted the name as the name of their Native American nation, or tribal group. Apparently there are 2400 Penobscot native americans in the States today officially registered.

If you want to know more, please go here, it's very interesting, and it gives you an idea of the original culture and history of this part of Maine!

Anyway, here are some pictures from The penobscot Narrows Observatory, 442 feet above the River! The picture below was taken from the Penobscot Bay side. In the distance you can see the Bay, and parts of Belfast I think. I think that might be Mount Kahatdin in the background, but I'm not sure!!

Below you can see just how high we were!! I took this picture looking straight down when we were in the Observation Tower. It's so high that you have to get a lift up to the top that would rival any Evil Genius's Secret Headquarters, as it whooshed up very fast and we were there in no time!! I think I made a comment that I was a little claustrophobic at one point, but the left wasn't actually that small, I think there were about 6-8 people in it with us, and it didn't feel too crushed. The guide at the bottom of the Lift gave me a funny look, I think because he heard my accent, or maybe he overheard the claustrophobia comment!! lol

If you look carefully, the bright blue car parked just to the right of the Waldo-Hancock Bridge, (which was built in the 1930's and was the original Bridge spanning the River) is actually Meg's car!! Fort Knox which I'll post about next, was just around the corner of the coast on the top left of the picture...

Here below you can see the green of the coast around Belfast and Penobscot Bay. This was taken looking to the right of the mouth of the river.

This next photo below I took next, and is slightly to the left of the earlier photo. You can see the wideness of the mouth of the River, and why a Fort was built a little further down the Coast to defend Maine against a seaward attack of the English!!!

Below, you can see the coast before you reach the Bay and Belfast, taken again from the opposite side to the mouth of the river. Look at all the forested areas!!

Taken again turning round to the Mouth of the River where it opens into the Atlantic. I think the Interstate you can see winding it's way along the coast is the one we came on.

Below is the same area but taken using the zoom, so you can see a little bit more of the detail of that house I really liked in the bottom slightly off centre!! It seemed to be on it's own and I liked that lol

Another photo more to the left of the head of Penobscot River, and you can see where it joins the Atlantic...

I tried to take a picture of Meg standing against the windows of the Observation Tower, but because it was very sunny that day it didn't turn out so well, as it's mainly a sillhouette. I still like the picture obviously though!! ;) :p

For those of you who are interested in Engineering, it's a fascinating Bridge, and the way it was built is amazing!! the white housings that surround the bacle stays of the bridge are filled with nitrogen gas to prevent corrosion and the bridge is made of cast cement which was poured in place by specially made equipment. It's built on the head of the Penobscot River, where it enters Penobscot Bay, and then flows into the Atlantic. The river's original source is in Mount Kahatdin.

Ok, so we'd done the Narrows Observatory, next was Fort Knox....