Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Mile Long Bridge
A Look Back at LaSalle 30 Years Ago

Recently I had someone send a copy of a movie that was made in LaSalle 30 years ago. The connection to me was that it was made by the same artist who painted a well-known piece that many of you might recognize... the mural at the Red Door Inn. The movie had been sitting on my desk for some time, and recently during a period of extreme multitasking, I popped it in to my computer. I am sure there will be many different opinions about this project, but once I started to watch, I could not stop.

The video is a project entitled The Mile Long Bridge. It is part art, part documentary with a splash of commentary. It covers some of the history of the bridge which is well over a hundred years old. The Mile Long Bridge is not actually a mile long. This railroad bridge is just short of 3,000 feet long.
The video was made with the hope of turning the bridge into a unique park. This 40-minute blast from the past includes many shots of downtown LaSalle, its town folk, and businesses. It also includes an interview with the Mayor Gunia. Of particular interest is a panel discussion after the program. It was made at TV-51. Remember TV-51? The panel includes several local people I am sure you will know.
Let us know what you think.  Blog on.

1 comment:

  1. I spent a lot of time playing around this area when I was very young and can remember walking the bridge with my grandpa - at least half of it anyway. I think we got to the span before turning back (in fairness, little legs and old legs get tired fast).

    I also have distinct memories of watching this on public television at some point around that time. Every once and a while a faint memory of this video would pop into my head and I'd think about how it would be interesting to watch again but I'd quickly write it off as being something that either never actually existed (one of those things created by a combination of old memories) or was at best, lost on a dark shelf in an archive somewhere.

    Thanks for sharing this Ray!

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