I was reading about the G20 summit in Washington and I thought to myself, so this is what the end of the American Empire looks like. Mine is just another day in the life of a minor citizen of the Empire going about his business, so I find myself observing shifting economic from the perspective of just another bemused reader and I wonder to myself what one is supposed to do about it all. I do get mad at these financial wizards for screwing up our lives but there isn't much I can do about them. I just feel its a little too soon for America to be giving up her leadership spot, Epires after all generally last longer than a couple of generations. But perhaps silicon and electrons have speeded up the rate of human decay alonsgide the speed of human communications.
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I figured the G20 summit was a polite way for the rest of the world to let the US know that they aren't taking our dollars anymore and it was time for us to step aside as the world's pre-eminent economic power. After all the rest of the world is spinning into a Depression right alongside us and it seems a little much to ask them to continue buying our debt, debt that we have used to fund our extravagant unproductive lifestyle. In a normal world this chaos would justify poking a very long stick at us to shove us out into the current of historical oblivion and watch us swirl away down the plughole. The American Empire should be just the latest in a series of superpowers consigned to the dustbin of history.
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As our unemployment statistics sink to Depression era status, Iceland goes bankrupt (Iceland??) China grumbles that their economy is slowing while unemployment is rising and Japan is freaking out because they are slipping back into deflation and despair. Russia is on the verge of another Revolution that may oust the freshly elected Medvedev as the economy returns to basket case status, and pushes Mr Putin back into the top job. Gold is indecisive and fluctuating like a wallflower at a ball, high today, low tomorrow, manipulated by who knows what dark forces. And still the US`dollar remains in high demand, a powerful reserve currency against other forms of exchange.
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At this point I am working on the assumption that no one has a clue what's going on. The Bush Administration is sliding rapidly into irrelevance and the Obama Administration is already starting to influence policy. I love reading websites that try to predict the future, because the future cannot be predicted. These really are interesting times. I feel an unexpected, impermissible surge of excitement, as I wait to see what madness happens next. The routine of my planned old age seems on the verge of evaporating, which some days scares me, other days annoys me and on a few days makes my blood fizz with excitement. The irony for me is that finally after a lifetime of searching I had found a place and a time to settle down, with my wife, our friends, our fulfilling and interesting jobs, our vacations and our mundane daily routines. I've lived a half century in a constant search for fulfillment in places where I wasn't, and now here I am, happy in my skin and in my life and bam!- the world explodes in a shower of broken promises. I know its not all about me but I am staring at the fireworks and wondering whatever else comes next this is a show I wouldn't want to miss. I am embarrassed by my fascination but I cannot avert my gaze. Whatever next? Inflation? Deflation? A Gold Standard? Bring it on, inquiring minds want to know.
The State took the railroad bridge over after the railroad went bust and built a narrow roadway on top of the thing in 1938 and that was how one drove to Key West along the narrow Highway. The Park had a card illustrating the old road:
All the land in the picture is now part of the park and the new road cuts across the bay to the right, a boring flat cement bridge with four lanes and a helpful 55mph speed limit, useful for those of us in a hurry of course, but not so scenic:
The new road was inaugurated in 1982, the year after I first came to the Keys so I must have ridden my Vespa over the old Bahia Honda Bridge but honestly I can't remember it. The Seven Mile bridge was much more memorable I guess, especially for people with four or more wheels as the old railroad bridges yielded a pretty narrow roadbed. But they sure do look spectacular those old piles:
The state very kindly cut out a chunk of the old bridge to allow sailboat masts to fit through the gap, as Bahia Honda ("deep bay" in Spanish) is a not just a state park but a nice little anchorage as well.
I have no idea what the work boat was doing but it was all terribly industrious chugging around the bay. The park is one of the more beach oriented locations in the Keys, it's got all the water related activities one might expect. It also has a fair bit of sand and these are islands that don't generally offer the strands that mainland Florida is famous for. The Keys are made of rock unlike the rest of the state which is a land built on sand as it were, and has long sand beaches as a reward. And in even in November people are flocking to the beaches of the Sunshine State:
We've had a succession of cold fronts lately, lots of north winds and temperatures frequently dipping under 70 degrees (20C) so it's long past swimming season for me. Not for visitors to the Keys it seems:
This time of year I like a ride to Bahia Honda, fifteen minutes from my house, for the pleasure of a walk not a swim. One of the most spectacular strolls is to the top of the old bridge. The approach road has become a tad overgrown with the passage of time:
The bridge itself has been smoothed over with cement and extra handrails have been installed for the benefit of visitors but it is more or less as it was, a work of art of compound curves:
The view from the top is glorious, vistas over land, the park itself to the east:
The power poles marching off to the north mark the track of the new Overseas Highway. To the southwest: sea and setting sun and not much this side of Mexico:
More towards Cuba there is actually a little land, though not much of it:
And there, across the divide lies the remainder of the bridge, untouched, unloved and unwalked upon. It's too bad really, as I think it would make a great bike path with unbeatable views. However I guess preservation wasn't worth the expense though you'd think corporations like to spend fortunes naming sports arenas after themselves, so why not an old bridge? One that still carries the old main water pipe in its nether regions:
As you can see the old road bed, laid on top of the railroad tracks, is a bit narrow especially for modern SUVs and commercial trucks. Old timers tell me that when two trucks met on these bridges they sometimes had to fold their mirrors and inch past so little room was there to spare. For my Vespa it was a different story of course.
And I will be back.