Millau Viaduct

When Jan sent this email photo of the Millau Viaduct a cable-stayed road bridge crossing the river Tarn, in France, and asked if I could cross it,  my first reaction was:  no way.

It is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one pier's summit at 343 meters, which is taller than the Eiffel tower, and only slightly (125 ft.) shorter than the Empire State Building.

 

I think I'd find this even more daunting:

Or this:

Talk about having your head in the clouds.

Considering I had to give up driving priviledges on Grandfather Mountain because of my acrophobia, I'd better not even think about going across this bridge unless there was someone else at the wheel and plenty of room for me to curl up in fetal position.

Comments

[Joan]

Wow. Incredible....I thought our new bridge was amazing.

[keewee]

yikes!!

[Houston]

Can we share?

My last name is Bridges. It is apropos of nothing, I just thought I'd throw that in.

I am acrophobic. I cannot stand next to a glass wall in a high rise. I am never completely comfortable riding in an elevator higher than about six or seven stories. I am subject to unexpected panic attacks in elevators when I am going up lots of stories. Never when going down, just when going up.

When I walk north on the east side of the Golden Gate Bridge, I am terrified because I think my feet want to jump off the bridge, but the rest of my body doesn't want to jump, so my arms try to reassure the other parts that if the feet try anything, they, the arms, will grab the rail. I do not experience this psychosis walking South, and I do not experience it on the west side of the bridge regardless of whether I'm traveling north or south. This plays as an entire conversation in my psyche. Every time.

There's a bridge between Orange and Pt. Arthur, Texas that has one of the steepest grades allowed by physics. While I faced my fear on several occasions and crossed the bridge, I knew to avoid it. It pushed my heart to the panic level to be in a car and drive across it. Of course, that could have had more to do with probability. You should have seen some of the cars that I drove in those days.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. Have we stumbled on a new phobia here, previously unnamed? Will they name it after us? Houston-Riannan complex, a form of acrophobia intensified when it occurs in the context of a bridge. Of course, Bridgesphobia would work for me, so that's why I thought I'd be upfront and tell you that my last name is Bridges.

Houston Bridges
Mugwump to the Snapping Turtle Clan
Bearhead Creek Redbones

[riannan]

No problem, Houston, we can name it after you. I also have it on winding mountain roads, and will never forget clutching the wall dead pasty white and in a cold sweat at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa as small children ran around me, and people stared.

[rarity]

WOW! That's some fine looking bridges! I'd just love to go on those!

[Laura]

My friend Allison just told me that she is going to France with her parents (aged 72) just to see the Millau bridge! (She decided to throw in the Chunnel and some other things as long as they were there...

[Tom]

I have been across that bridge 2 times. It is totaly amazing. would love to base jump it. haha.