Hello all, I just wanted to report that on a recent visit to my in-laws I took the opportunity to visit Redding's new Sundial Bridge, once in mid-afternoon, once at night, and again the next morning. It's quite a sight, and at certain times of day the new bridge and the park area on either bank of the Sacramento river are crowded and bustling with people coming to see this lovely work conceived by Santiago Calatrava.
As people have speculated, its use as an actual sundial has been less important than its function as footbridge and general tourist attraction, for a number of reasons. As far as hour lines or hour marks go, here is the extent of it, as far as I could tell: there is a low, raised, broken-white-tile-encrusted berm which follows what appears to be a portion of the curve traversed by the tip of the "gnomon" shadow on the Summer Solstice, upon which are some cast brass plates marking every 15 minutes from 11AM to 3 PM (they are marked with the June 21 date, and tell Pacific Daylight Time). Given the height of the pylon, each 15 minutes are a few feet apart from each other. There are no hour lines on the ground and no markings for other dates or times. The area which would be required to lay out any markings for the equinox or Winter Solstice extends far off into some parkland and an arboretum as well as across other trails and a small footbridge, and would be quite a ways away, so there may never be any further markers once the landscaping and other nearby park & trail work is finished. The tip of the shadow, of course, is quite wide, and even on a clear sunny day (which Redding gets plenty of) it is quite blurry-edged and wide. Since I was viewing it nearly a month after the solstice, its tip was further north than the summer solstice line, and the width across the berm would be easily 3 feet across, I'm guessing, due to the thickness of the structure. Because of the time of day I was there and my lack of a tape measure :^), I couldn't verify whether the markers were correctly located. But the 1PM marker was indeed offset to the West of the meridian slightly (site is at 40.59 N 122.38 W) to correct for being a bit off the 120 degree standard for the time zone (it's marked for the summer "daylight savings" time). I don't recall an actual meridian (solar noon) marker. Given the newness of the tile work and the fact that the bridge's grand opening was shortly after the solstice, I wouldn't be surprised if they placed the markers based on actual observations taken on the solstice itself rather than by measurement & calculation. In the evening the lights, placed below the translucent glass panels of the walking surface of the bridge, shine both up (illuminating the bridge's span from below, in glowing bluish-green through the glass), and down toward the rapidly-flowing river below. Having the lights underneath is fun and novel, given the glass walking surface, but turned out to be a great idea for the pedestrians because the millions of moths and other flying insects which are thereby attracted tend to stay out of the hair of the pedestrians! To me, it was most interesting to overhear the comments of the multitude, most of whom have probably never seen a really decent sundial in their lives and know little about them. Many people were either confused, misinformed or full of completely wrongheaded ideas about sundials, and were happily spouting some rather foolish nonsense to their companions as they walked by. Certainly, calling it the "Sundial Bridge" has raised a certain expectation among the visiting public, and I think that the sundial-loving community of this list might find many ways to help! I really think that this location could be the start of a truly educational sundial park, perhaps with an array of different sundial types (perhaps inspired by Genk, Belgium, http://www.biol.rug.nl/maes/genk/welcome-e.htm). Certainly if left as is, most people will find their experience of the bridge affected by their confusion about its role as sundial; and it's a much better bridge than a sundial in the normal timekeeping sense. But there is a lovely park area on both sides of the river adjacent to the bridge and other trails/parks along the river which are just waiting for some good sundials, I can tell. I wonder if we can find a way to raise the bar, combine the educational with the artistic, and...who knows? P.S. It looks like Robert Adzema will be talking about the bridge on Sunday morning (Aug. 22) at the NASS conference in Tenafly, NJ. Tom Bower Santa Rosa, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] -
