Bridge of Glass – Post 23 of our August Seattle trip

Surely I’m done posting about the Tacoma Museum of Glass? There was a hot shop and a gallery and the kid’s designs. It was a great morning! We ate lunch on the restaurant patio and were about to call it a morning well spent. But John had seen something mentioning a glass bridge and wanted to look around to see if we could find out what that was.

Could the bridge of glass have something to do with this installation?

When we arrived earlier in the morning, this pond of glass was shockingly ugly, in my opinion. It was dirty and brownish-gray, rundown, completely depressing. I thought it was an example of some of the worst public art I’d ever seen. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it, because I don’t usually take pictures of things I don’t like. But in hindsight I should have taken a picture of it when it was in its dirty, gray and lifeless state, because it would have made an excellent contrast photo. When the sun came out later in the morning, the installation came to life. It sparkled and glowed and was suddenly beautiful.

I don’t know what its name is, but I’m naming it “mood reflecting pond”, because it does exactly what my mood does. Lifeless and dull when its cloudy, coming to glittering life when the sun returns. Whatever it’s name, it wasn’t “Bridge of Glass.” So what was?

We wandered around looking for some mythical glass bridge. We saw bridges, yes, and glass, yes, but no glass bridges.

Well, there’s a bridge over some railroad tracks and a freeway.

I was skeptical because it looked like it was just a pedestrian walk between the local neighborhood the museum, but there were greenish-blue tall things that could be glass on the other side of the bridge. Might as well check it out.

Wait – what’s this? We found the bridge of glass art!

It was amazing.

And there’s the tall blue columns that led us in the right direction.

But wait – it’s not over yet! Past the tall blue glass columns we found – a glass ceiling of Chihuly glass! My favorite thing!

(Yeah, that’s what my hair does in the humidity, lol. It coils like an orange yarn mop.)

All of this was on the bridge over the freeway, accessible to the public for free. If you’re ever in the Seattle area, it’s definitely worth going down to Tacoma for the glass museum and hot shop aaaand…bridge of glass!

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