Bridges in art

A bridge can play many roles in art, for example

• as a work of art in itself;
• as a focal point for a novel or film;
• as a metaphor in song or poetry;
• as the main subject of a painting or photograph, or to frame one and give perspective;
• as a home for other works of art, such as sculptures

Contents

1 Poems 2 Motion pictures 3 Songs 4 Other works 5 Paintings 5.1 References 6 Homes to sculpture

Poems

• The nursery rhyme London Bridge is falling down
• William McGonagall's poem on The Tay Bridge Disaster (1880)
• Macaulay's poem, The boy stood on the burning bridge

• Wordsworth's famous sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802", opening with the famous lines, referring to the view from the bridge,

  Earth has not anything to show more fair:

  Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

  A sight so touching in its majesty.

• Julia A. Moore's poem on the Ashtabula Disaster:

  Have you heard of the dreadful fate

  Of Mr. P. P. Bliss and wife?

  Of their death I will relate,

  And also others lost their life;

  Ashtabula Bridge disaster,

  Where so many people died

  Without a thought that destruction

  Would plunge them 'neath the wheel of tide. (1879)

Motion pictures

• Bridge (1922)
• The Bridges of Madison County (1992)
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929, 1944)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
• Die Brücke ("German - The Bridge", 1959)
• The Bridge (movie) (French, 1999)
• A Bridge Too Far (1977)
• The Bridge at Remagen (1969)

Songs

• The Simon and Garfunkel song (using the term metaphorically), Bridge Over Troubled Water.
• The song Ode To Billy Joe, which became a hit for Bobbie Gentry (1967)
• The Divine Comedy's "Painting the Forth Bridge", the title being a colloqial term for an unending task, a reference to the Forth Bridge
• The Pogues' "Misty Morning, Albert Bridge": Albert Bridge is a bridge across the Thames river
• Andy Partridge (of XTC) and Harold Budd - "Tenochtitlan's Numberless Bridges": Tenochtitlan was an Aztec island city with many waterways, canals, and bridges
• Harpers Bizarre - "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)": The bridge of the title, also known as the Queensboro Bridge, links Manhattan with Queens
• T'Pau - "Bridge of Spies": The title refers to Glienicke Bridge in Germany, called the Bridge of Spies because three times during the Cold War, released agents were exchanged there.

Other works

• Iain Banks' novel The Bridge (1986)
• Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, concerning the destruction of a bridge by guerrilla during the Spanish Civil War
• Bridges TV Cable TV station seeking to "bridge" Middle East and West.
• In Chinese and other East Asian ivory carvings the arch of the tusk with the central portion upward suggests naturally a bridge, and often a bridge is a central cultural element when a large sculpture is formed from a single tusk.

Paintings

• Canaletto - various bridges in London and Venice, including the Rialto Bridge
• Hiroshige - various bridges in Japan, including several stations on the Tokaido road
• Hokusai - various bridges in Japan, including the color print series "Views of Famous Bridges and Views of Lu-chu Islands"
• Monet - Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, and in his water lily paintings
• Pissarro - various bridges in Paris, including "le Pont Neuf"
• Turner - bridges in Venice, England and Scotland, including the famous "Rain, Steam, and Speed."
• Van Gogh - including "le Pont de la Grande Jatte" over the Seine
• Whistler - his "Nocturne in Black and Gold" depicts fireworks over old Battersea Bridge, London

References

• Brantacan.co.uk

Homes to sculpture

Bridges are often used as locations for sculptures. Especially popular are animals such as lions, perhaps serving as guardians. Examples are the 485 carved stone lions of the Marco Polo Bridge in China, which was first constructed in 1192, and the four Centre Street Bridge lions of Calgary, which date to 1917.

Another well-known example of a bridge hosting statues is the Charles Bridge in Prague, which is home to 30 statues and statuaries, mostly baroque, dating to around 1700.