Gribblenation

For over a year now, I have been posting various photos that I've taken from over 10 years ago on the Facebook road-related groups as a bit of a nod to Throwback Thursday. I would like to start posting this on the blog as well. In the days before blue pentagon shaped county route shields, the various counties in New York State used different shapes and colors for their county route shields. In the Empire State, this practice ended during the 1970s. This week, we go back to June 2002, when a rare remaining square Suffolk County route shield was still kicking around at the eastern end of Suffolk CR 80 in Southampton, New York.

Zanesville, Ohio is home to one of the more unique bridges in the United States.  Situated at the confluence of the Licking and Muskingum Rivers, the 'Y' bridge consists of three 'legs' that meet over the rivers to form a Y.  As a result, it is possible to cross the bridge while beginning and ending on the same side of the river as you started from.  For over 200 years, five different versions of this unique bridge has crossed the two rivers in Zanesville. (Mike Austing) The first 'Y' Bridge was built in 1814 - a wooden trestle style bridge - and lasted only four years.  In 1819, a new second bridge would be opened and would stand until it was condemned as unsafe 12 years later.  The third Y bridge consisted of three covered bridges and stood until 1900. For nearly a century - US 40 traffic makes either a left (westbound) or right (eastbound) hand turn at the center of the bridge.  (Doug Kerr) In 1902, the fourth version of the famous landmar...

Continuing from my previous blog, Sunday was the third National Park visit of the weekend out in Yosemite.  Given Glacier Point is likely to close sometime in the next 45 days I took my passengers up to the overlook early in the morning.  There was actually a fairly decent amount of snow above 7,000 feet which had fallen the week previously.  Crowds were fairly light which is something I suspect was due to the cold temperature and ongoing fires.  Either way, still weird to see Glacier Point Road so free of traffic at 9:30 AM in the morning. Glacier Point has had ongoing issues with the Empire Fire which has lapped up almost to the observation point and Glacier Point Road.  Glacier Point itself was actually closed for much of August due to ongoing fires.  There was actually three large forest fires between Oakhurst and Yosemite this year, as far as I know none of them caused serious damage. Glacier Point is located at 7,214 feet above sea level and...

I had a long weekend off and decided to hit the Sierras to take some folks I know around three National Parks.  In this case Saturday consisted of two National Parks; Kings Canyon and Sequoia.  I made my way up CA 180 east from Fresno to a very cold morning in the Grant Grove section of Kings Canyon National Park.  Despite being signed, CA 180 technically doesn't exist with in the bounds of the Grant Grove section of Kings Canyon National Park. I actually did a historic brief on CA 180 east of Fresno to the bottom of King Canyon back in May on the AAroads web forum: CA 180 Kings Canyon Highway on AAroads What I find really interesting about CA 180 is that it was apparently envisioned as a Trans-Sierra Highway.   By 1934 when CA 180 was created there was significant logging interests within Kings Canyon itself.  The prior logging operation at Hume Lake really drove road development along the Grant Grove corridor which at the time was General Gra...