#stjosephmi

St. Joseph Swing Bridge

Here's a shot of the swing bridge at St. Joseph, Michigan. This is the third railroad bridge in this location, built in 1904 (source).

As mentioned in my previous post, the rail line here was the Chicago and West Michigan, then the Pere Marquette Railway, before being folded into the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, and finally CSX.

When taking the shot of the bridge I noticed the two brick buildings beyond. The letters thereon tell us they're now used by the St. Joseph River Yacht Club, but that didn't seem to tell the whole story (as they look too old and too substantial for this purpose).

It turns out they were built between 1891 and 1893 as the Ninth District Lighthouse Depot. One hundred years after its completion, in 1993, the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places (source). The next time I'm in the area I will go out of my way to get a closer look at these structures.

Pere Marquette

Here's a sequence of Amtrak's Pere Marquette after having just made its station stop at St. Joseph, Michigan. That is Lake Michigan in the background of course.

The train is named for the former railroad, the Pere Marquette Railway (the Chicago and West Michigan prior to that and the Chesapeake & Ohio afterwards). Going back further, that name for the railway comes from the French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement.

Crossing the Swing Bridge

I was able to catch a train on the St. Joseph River Swing Bridge seen in the previous post. This train is moving in the same direction as the Amtrak train two posts ago—toward Chicago (don't know if this is considered south or west on the CSX).

As mentioned before: this line was the Chicago & West Michigan, Pere Marquette, C&O, Chessie System, and finally CSX.

Pons-Brooks/Jupiter

Just to follow up on the previous two posts: I was not thrilled with what I could see of Pons-Brooks, but was pleasantly surprised when I spied Jupiter with her four large moons present, though did not notice till I opened images on the laptop later.

Lookout Park

These taken after attempt for green flash, and prior to looking for the Pons-Brooks comet. This nice little park is located in St. Joseph, Michigan.

Yet Another Attempt

The green flash: since seeing it last year (but not shooting it ‘cause I was not expecting it), I tried many times to photograph it in the following months. I made several trips over to the west side of Michigan but was thwarted by smoke from Canadian wildfires and/or clouds near the horizon line—every time. The green flash, in effect, became my white whale.

Recently, I heard about a comet, Pons-Brooks, and wanted to try to shoot that as I'd gotten a decent shot of Neowise several years ago. Going over to Lake Michigan would give me the best view to the west as it would be low toward the horizon. Then it hit me, if it’s totally clear at St. Joseph, I might as well try for the green flash prior to it getting dark for the comet.

While not an outstanding result, I'll take this given my earlier, fruitless attempts. By the way, the comet was a dud: a fuzz ball with no tail that I could discern, alas.