People on the street

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City Daily Photo's Theme Day is about people on the street.

My people here are at one end of Jaffa Street at what we call the entrance to Jerusalem.
Above them is Calatrava's Bridge of Strings which carries the tram and a few pedestrians over the busy intersection.

An older man had fainted or fallen on the sidewalk and a gurney was quickly brought for him.
So you have the young Magen David Adom (our Red Cross) volunteer medics in white, the religious onlookers in black, and two police officers.

On Sunday a stage will be built at this place and busloads of haredi Jews will converge from all over Israel and Jerusalem for a massive prayer rally and protest.
They are coming together to fight proposed new laws to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army.

Highway 1, the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, will be closed to private cars after 2 p.m. Sunday from the Latrun area to the capital.
The Jerusalem Central Bus Station will be shut down in the afternoon.
Buses and the tram will stop running near the entrance to Jerusalem.
Some schools in the area will close at 1 p.m. 


The gridlock will be bad enough; but mainly let's pray there is not much violence.

See more in Arutz Sheva and  The Times of Israel  and Haaretz.

UPDATE, Sunday morning:
 Ynet says "Inside the haredi community there were calls from rabbis on Thursday to attend the rally, and the community's leaders gave a rare permission for women to attend – but on separate streets. All boys from the ages of nine and older were also called to attend the rally."
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Greenpeace in action!

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(All photos can be much enlarged. Click once, and then again.)

Greenpeace strikes again!

 I first saw the climbers on Jerusalem's Bridge of Strings at 7:45 this morning.
I hear they started their surprise action already at dawn.

This is not the first time Greenpeace has used Calatrava's bridge to protest.

By 1:30 the hot sun was beating down on the five.
Greenpeace Israel on Facebook is now saying the activists were hanging up there for about TEN hours!

The view from across the street, near Binyanei HaUma, where President Obama would come at 5:00 to give his keynote speech to Israeli students.
The trams kept going over the bridge.
Some of the car drivers on the busy road tooted their encouragement to the protesters.

The police waited below, snapping photos.
Our media was not mentioning the event all day.
Only now, at 7:00 pm,  I hear on the radio that when the climbers finally came down four were arrested.
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Whether you agree with the tactics and ideas of Greenpeace or not, you had to admire the strength, determination, idealism, and courage of these young people up in the air today.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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A crowded sky

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Our skies were grey this week.

As I waited for the tram on Jaffa Street, near the Central Bus Station, I looked up and realized that all those mechanical things above me did not even exist when I moved to the Jerusalem area in 2006.
Not the electric lines for the light rail (not even the tracks existed yet).
Not the huge cranes building a station deep underground (for a high speed Tel Aviv-Jerusalem railway that may never be finished).
Not the sloping mast of Calatrava's Bridge of Strings.

The city I have known these six years is in a perpetual state of construction. 

Here is the top of the bridge as seen from Binyanei HaUma, the convention center, where the International Book Fair is going on.
(A click, than another click, will enlarge it nicely.) 
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Happy SkyWatch Friday  and happy Valentine's Day!
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Balloons on the bridge cables

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Hey, who tied those pretty balloons to Jerusalem's Bridge of Strings?!
How?
When?  Why?
What would Calatrava say?
How long did they remain? 
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I think it was a happy little addition to the all-white bridge that  carries the light rail  up and over a busy intersection.
Pedestrians too can walk across on the bridge. 

I followed the exciting construction that began in 2007,  and then the bridge's festive dedication,  and then trial runs of the tram.
See some of the 18 posts.
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This post is for SkyWatch Friday.
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Above the traffic

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The new tram goes up and over the new bridge!

Calatrava's Bridge of Strings was built to carry Jerusalem's first light rail and also pedestrians.
It is the world's first curved suspended train-bearing bridge; and it works, so far at least!

The exciting view of the cables from the tram window!

The view from below.
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Click on my label "Calatrava" for more about the bridge and its construction.
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A post for Sunday Bridges meme.
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An engineering first

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There goes the tram, up and over the curved Calatrava Bridge of Strings!

(Finally, a Jerusalem bridge picture for Sunday Bridges meme.)

In a post of mine from three years ago showing the early stages of the bridge construction an engineering maven said, "The Bridge of Strings will be the first train-carrying curved suspension bridge in the world."

You can see the white mast and the cables of the bridge protruding from behind a tall building.
(Lots more pictures of the whole bridge are under my label "Calatrava.")
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And look! A brand new bench for future tram passengers.
This tram stop is across the street from the Central Bus Station on Jaffa Street.
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We the public were told the light rail would start taking passengers in August, but now that has been delayed again to November.
The reasons, which include a lot of infighting, are explained in the Jerusalem Post.
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Well, at least now we have benches to sit on and watch the empty trams glide by as they are being tested.
It's more like our PATIENCE that is being tested.
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Greenpeace on the bridge strings!

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NEWS FLASH!
I just saw on the TV news how Greenpeace activists climbed 50 meters up the strings of our Calatrava Bridge of Strings today!
Wish I had known sooner, would have gone in to Jerusalem to see.
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From Wall Photos album of Facebook group Greenpeace Mediterranean - Israel

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Five of them unfurled a giant sign saying

"Bibi, stop [the building of] the coal-fired power plant!"

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According to the AP, the action took six hours and the sign stayed up for forty minutes.

The young male and female climbers were not arrested.

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You can see exciting photos in several of their Facebook albums.
They just put up a video too!
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Break and cast away [not!]

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Bridge of Chords, Jerusalem
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1 Why are the nations in an uproar? And why do the peoples mutter in vain?

2 The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His anointed [saying]:

3 "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."

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The verses from Psalm 2 are contributed to Robert's new PsalmsChallenge meme at Daily Athens and our Calatrava bridge (long may it stand!) is for Louis la Vache's "Sunday Bridges."

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Danger overhead

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With great fanfare the Bridge of Strings, built for Jerusalem's new light rail, was dedicated in June 2008.
But so far only pedestrians cross the bridge because the tram completion is way behind schedule.
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Just recently the overhead wires on the catenary masts were electrified.
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Perhaps to remind the workers of this new situation, several orange cones were strung up, with a cable dangling below and the sign "DANGER -- HIGH VOLTAGE."

So . . . new wires, full of power, have joined the sky view in front of the strong cables of the Bridge of Strings.
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UPDATE: I should have explained better that pedestrians can walk safely on either side of the bridge, well apart from the tram rails, as seen in my bridge walk here and here.
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For Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges.
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Bridge shadows and trams

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Shadows of four of the 66 steel cables on Calatrava's Bridge of Strings.

(My gift to Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.)

Catenary masts have sprouted all along the bridge.

The overhead wires were just recently electrified.

Now we anxiously await the first test of the new trams going over the bridge on their own power.

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A photographer at work (or at play) in the shadow of the bridge.

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(The bridge being for Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges.)
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The 119-meter bridge mast towers over the parked, still-not-ridden-in trams.
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More shadows! Of both bare and leafy trees waiting to be planted along the route of Jerusalem's light rail.

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Hopefully the system will open in April and we will get our first pictures from inside the carriages.

Meanwhile, these new signs of progress are exciting!

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White on blue

The Jerusalem sky is still a bright blue, as seen through Calatrava's Bridge of Strings.
Rain and winter just don't want to come.
T-shirt weather continues. Today was hot, windy, and a too-dry 10% humidity.
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Shalom to all the SkyWatch Friday folks.
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The tram, the tram!

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I really got a charge out of this scene today!
The electric company had two trucks on the Herzl Street tram rails, and in each cherrypicker were two workers.
They were connecting the overhead wires that will power the new tram. Yay!
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It was so exciting that I got off the bus midway to the shuk in order to take pictures.
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A few hours later I was on the bus coming back from the market.
Suddenly I looked out the window and saw empty light rail cars sitting on the tracks!
My first time to see them in person!!


Are they not sleek and beautiful?!

They were parked just beyond the Bridge of Strings.

I suspect they will be tested on the bridge tonight, maybe, I hope . . .

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Two weeks ago, starting at midnight, a tram went on the bridge for the first time, but not on its own power.
The Jerusalem Post reported that "A specially-designed truck pushed the first train over the span, allowing exact measurements to be taken. They were 'static tests,' allowing the engineers to measure weight and stress on the structure.

It took a full two hours for the first train to cross, as engineers stopped every meter to take readings and make sure all was running smoothly."
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With the electric lines that were hooked up today, the next trial run can be dynamic tests instead of static tests.

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That's today's progress for That's My World Tuesday.
P.S. On the truck in the first photo is written chashmal.

I posted once about how modern Hebrew adopted this word from the prophet Ezekiel's mystical vision.

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Action above and below-ground

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A battle in the skies of Jerusalem?!
Who will win, the mast of Calatrava's Bridge of Strings or the giant cranes?
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The cranes are working in a deep pit that we saw in a previous post.
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The crane's shadow, for Shadow Shot Sunday, suddenly curves as it hits the side wall of the 80-meter-deep pit.
There is a big machine near the air hose. I think they are starting to bore a tunnel for the future high speed Tel Aviv-Jerusalem train.
This hole will someday be the train station, and it will double as a bomb shelter.
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The bridge, or at least the top part of it, is for Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges.

Driving under, looking up

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Once again, for Louis la Vache's "Sunday Bridges," Jerusalem's Bridge of Strings.
(See more under the label Calatrava.)
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How did reflections of the tall apartment buildings get onto the UNDERSIDE of the bridge?!
You figure it was a trick of the bus window through which I took the picture?
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Everyone thinks "Trolls!" when you say "under the bridge," but I think the religious men in this photo look dwarfed by the big bridge.
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Jerusalem by night

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Our Calatrava bridge is still quite new and I still find it exciting when our bus passes under it, especially at night.

(And especially when I am in search of bridge shots for Louis la Vache's "Sunday Bridges.")
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From the bus you get a nice view of the "strings" of the Bridge of Strings.

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And even the sidewalk has lights inside it.

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The roar of traffic and lions

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We don't collect only bridges, but also benches--and lions too.

Enlarge to see the Lion of Judah, the municipal emblem of Jerusalem.

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Here is the view from the Calatrava bridge featured in the previous post.

The transparent side is a bit dirty, but believe me . . .

. . . down below are benches and a newly-planted little garden with olive trees.

Under the bridge, in the merciful shade, are more such benches, each with two metal lions rampant.

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Our Calatrava bridge

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For Louis la Vache's Sunday Bridges here is Jerusalem's most spectacular, most ambitious, most expensive--but still unfinished--bridge!

Wikepedia calls it a cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge (single-sided angled cantilever) .
It will be the first such curved bridge in the world to carry a light rail mass transit system.

Meanwhile only pedestrians can use it to cross the busy intersection near the western entrance to Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Chords Bridge!

I much prefer to translate its Hebrew name, Gesher HaMetarim, as the Bridge of Strings.

Click on this photo to see the criss-cross of the "strings."

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Together the 66 cables resemble the harp played by King David the Psalmist.

That was Santiago Calatrava's idea in designing this bridge for the Holy City.

You can click on my label "Calatrava" to see stages of construction since early 2007.

See especially http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/06/strumming-bridge-harp.html for the huge crane, Israel's largest mobile crane, which lifted the sections of bridge which were built in Padua, Italy.

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And http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/06/gala-for-calatrava.html is full of fireworks and dramatic color illumination of the mast from the inauguration gala.

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Hopefully next year will see the tram/light rail up and running.

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Security on wheels

For the motorcyle lovers among us, here are the bikes I found at the Bridge of Strings ceremony in Jerusalem.
The Kawasaki KLE 500 is standard issue for Yasam, the police unit which specializes in riot and crowd control and other special operations.

White bridge with black bike.

Covering the bridge

We photobloggers are all photographers, just at different stages of development, no?
So as a budding photographer at the gala inauguration of Calatrava's Bridge of Strings, I found myself drawn to interesting scenes of interaction between those with cameras and those without.
BTW, the evening was also a rare opportunity for the very religious and the less religious to rub elbows and enjoy the festivities together.