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| The Coleman Bridge over the York River (click to enlasrge) Fujifilm X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 55mm; 1/420th sec. @ f/11; ISO 200 |
Southeastern Virginia is the home of at least 18 military bases and many more military facilities and commands. The Norfolk Naval Base is touted as the largest in the world. Along with the U.S. Navy and its many bases in the area, there are a couple of U.S. Army bases, a major U.S. Coast Guard command and base, a U.S. Air Force base, U.S. Marine Corp. bases, NASA Langley and many, many military support industries. I'm told there are over 100,000 active duty military personnel in this area. But here is the problem.
The Navy, Army, Marines and Coast Guard all have vessels stationed here. Additionally, there is the oldest U.S. Government shipyard (Gosport Naval Shipyard now known as Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, VA) as well as the Newport News Shipyard, which makes and maintains aircraft carriers and submarines. All of these ships have to have access to the open ocean. In the case of enemy attack, it would be easy to send missiles or bombs to this area, take out the bridges over the several major rivers and Chesapeake Bay, thereby preventing any ships in port from leaving and any ships that need to get to port, access. The answer to that problem is, with the exception of the bridge above, is we have no bridges over any major waterways between any major military facility and the open ocean. We have tunnels beneath the the rivers. Tunnels can't be bombed and dropped blocking the river channels.
However, that causes other issues with drivers who are scared to drive in tunnels, oversize trucks trying to drive through and those who break down or run out of fuel inside the tunnels. In other words, tunnels cause as many issues, if not more, for daily driving as they solve in case of enemy attack.
The Coleman Bridge, above, is the exception, which is located between the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and the open ocean. I guess there are other options to load weapons onto Naval warships if that bridge gets dropped into the water and blocks the channel.
The Coleman Bridge is interesting as it is the largest double swing span bridge in the U.S. and, according to Wikipedia, the second largest in the world. It is 3750 ft. (1140m) long and the road deck is 90 ft. above the surface of the water. Of course it is a toll bridge as nothing comes free anymore. Just to the left edge of this image is Yorktown, the site of the last battle of the United States' Revolutionary War. A battle which ended that war in 1782.
As an interesting aside, if you look at the far bank of the York River, toward the right side of the image, that is where Werowocomoco was located. Werowocomoco was the name of the village where Chief Powhatan resided. Powhatan was Pocahontas' father and Werowocomoco is where Capt. John Smith was captured, later released and married Pocohontas, a story that is routinely taught in U.S. history.
There is so much history and interesting things in this area of Virginia. In a lifetime, one could never see all of it.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook All content on this blog is © 2013-2018 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
Thanks for sharing Dennis. I enjoy your historical lessons as well as your photos. Do you ever run into any issues photographing near military facilities?
ReplyDeleteJim
Jim, thanks for the comment.
DeleteI've never had any issues while photographing around military bases. Only parts of most military bases are classified and federal law does not allow photographing those areas. Most parts are exposed to the public and are not off limits to photography. Also, some civilian industries, such as the Newport News Shipbuilding Company here in Newport News (builds aircraft carriers and submarines) was designated a National Security Facility (or some such) by executive order back in the 1950s or 1960s, so you can't photograph it legally as well. I think if you are open, up front, straightforward, not trying to be secretive nor stealthy and, if approached, answer questions openly and honestly, you typically don't run into any trouble. When you do, it is typically a marginally informed private security person rather than a law enforcement officer (unless the officer is being an idiot and I've had a few of those working for me over the years!).
For those who are interested, the general rule of law in the United States is that if you are in a public place (where you have a right to be) you can photograph anything you can see with only a couple of exceptions. One is what I mentioned above and the other is, for example, with a long telephoto lens looking into someone's bedroom window where the individual would have an expectation of privacy. Now what you can do with those images is another set of laws.
But, I'm not a lawyer and there are sites on the Net that will give you more and better information. I was a police officer for 35 years, a photographer for 47 years and am well versed in the law but not licensed to give legal information.
did you mean, "Tunnels can't be bombed...
ReplyDeletebtw, as an Olympus owner, I love your posts.
Curtis, thanks for picking up on that error. I have now corrected it. Also, thank you for your kind words!
DeleteCorrection, John Smith did not marry Pocahontas, though she did save him from execution after being captured by her father. She would ultimately marry John Rolfe, a mistake that is common due to the Disney movie. And the Revolutionary War officially ended in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris.
ReplyDeleteBugman520, of course, you are absolutely correct. I knew that but must have had a mental lapse. Thanks for the correction.
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