It's a good kind of weird, the kind that makes you say to yourself, "I could live here." Austin is the only community in Texas that is a certified wildlife habitat, a designation referring to birds and critters, not music festivals, another locally prevalent form of wildlife.
I usually stop mid-center to look at the water. Ducks and water birds flock in winter, cliff-swallows fly in summer.
And the UT rowing team practices year-round. I like the idea that our lives leave eddies.
One cold morning not long ago, I looked up as I walked onto the bridge and saw a barefoot, nightgown-clad girl perched on the rail. My heart jumped. I ran. How to save her? After a few steps I saw the photographer and stylists.
Looking south from the walkers' bridge, pedestrians see a bridge for trains, decorated with illegal and truly Austin graffiti:
Life Is Change
Be Flexible
Be Flexible
And:
Focus One Point
and
Breathe
Graffiti for the walker's soul.
At about the mid-point of the bridge a Ghost-Bike is chained to the rail, a memorial to Royce Scott McCoy from his loving family, and a reminder to share the road.
An end and a beginning, this spiral garden links the bridge to the bustle of downtown, an Austin amen to the necessity of nature in our lives.
An end and a beginning, this spiral garden links the bridge to the bustle of downtown, an Austin amen to the necessity of nature in our lives.
Copyright 2009-2011 Kathleen Scott, for Hill Country Mysteries. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.