Five Cool Facts About the Arthur J. Ravenel Jr. Bridge...
Five Cool and "Wonder"-ful facts about our city's amazing bridge...
Can you believe the Arthur J. Ravenel is 10 years old this weekend? We are all so used to seeing this amazing structure on our city's skyline from just about every vantage point possible here in the Lowcountry, it's hard to remember a time when those giant diamonds weren't there.... here are some cool facts about our iconic bridge....
1. While most of us probably already know that there is an elevator inside each of the 4 towers of the Ravenel, from which you have amazing views like this....
Not everyone knows about the 5th elevator…...It's called “the traveler” and it's a sort of 'horizontal elevator' that moves along the inner edges of the bridge’s girders. It is used for cleaning, inspections and maintenance…
And what's so cool about this?... Well...the Arthur J. Ravenel Bridge Jr. has bragging rights over its traveler, as it is the longest single unit traveler in the world! Did you know that it was shipped in three pieces and then spliced together? This bad boy is powered by 480 volt AC motors and it's controlled by a remote controlled computer system....
(honey...where is the remote?....)
2. Did you know that most of the rebar that acts as the skeletal structure ( inside the bridge's bazillion tons of concrete) came from recycled materials? Yup....it's true...the bridge's rebar, or reinforcing steel came almost entirely from old cars, appliances, and other scrap steel......
98 % of rebar in the USA is now manufactured this way…and when it comes to the Ravenel…the rebar used helped meet sustainability goals for recycled materials on the project:
3. Look closely at the rebar cage in this picture...notice the little pieces of wires holding the rebar together? Each rebar cage built and soddered by the ironworkers ( and there are literally thousands of these cages in the Ravenel,) were also hand wired together by guys known as "rod busters." Amazing, it's simply amazing when you stop and consider the magnitude of all the human labor that went into the building of this bridge...
4. The 12 ft wide bicycle-pedestrian path on the south side of the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge between Charleston and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina is called Wonders Way…
And wondrous it is......This “wonder-ful” path, open for anyone to walk, jog, or bike across not only offers splendid views of Charleston Harbor and Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, but it is a memorial to Garrett Wonders, a prominent go-getter and truly inspirational guy, who was sadly struck down by a careless driver, while training for the Olympics....
By the way...did you know that The Garrett Wonders Memorial Fund and Safe Street Safe Lives also produce cool PSAs on safe cycling, like this one?....
5. Apparently Charlestonians arent the only folks who think our bridge is pretty cool....Lego even made a limited edition Ravenel Bridge Set....
The cost for this limited edition set is pretty steep... and it's already sold out.... but not to worry...you can still always just drive, walk, run, cycle our beloved bridge any day of the week for free...
When you stop and think about it....Bridges are like HVAC units....We can't live without them here in the Lowcountry..... and the best and the coolest are the ones that are designed to last....the ones that are well built and well maintained...Lowcountry A.C. repair and servicing like the bridge maintenance, is something we simply can't afford to live without.
Until next time...Service First will be crossing that big beautiful bridge as we work keep the Lowcountry cool, one A.C. at a time....
