Today’s mystery is a stone building with a red door, and what looks like stained glass windows. Can you tell us what this is? Send your idea to ebrack2@gmail.com and tell us what town you live in.
Jay Altman of Columbia, S.C. recognized the “Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the Hoan Bridge, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse in the foreground.” The photo came from Chuck Paul of Norcross.
Others recognizing the mystery were George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, who added another dimension to this story: “It is the Milwaukee Pierhead Lighthouse, located at the entrance to Milwaukee Harbor at the mouth of the Kinnickinnic River as it enters Lake Michigan. In the background is the Daniel W. Hoan Memorial Bridge, an iconic tied-arch bridge best known for its distinctive yellow arches and its role in highlighting the city’s skyline.
“The current Pierhead Lighthouse is a cast-iron, conical steel lighthouse built in 1906 to replace an original 1872 wooden tower that had become deteriorated and outdated. It is approximately 41 feet tall and is now equipped with an automated, solar-powered beacon that flashes red every 4 seconds and is visible for roughly seven nautical miles.
“Now, if you were to ask your readers to identify a bridge associated with the nickname ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ I am pretty sure that most would recall the infamous 2005-2008 moniker associated with Sarah Palin’s $233 million federal earmark proposal to build a bridge connecting Ketchikan to Gravina Island, a small island of just 50 residents. However, the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee earned this nickname long before Sarah Palin’s fiasco.
“Construction of the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee began in 1970 as part of the planned Lake Freeway system. However, by 1972, intense public opposition to freeway expansion and neighborhood displacement led to the cancellation of all connecting routes, halting progress and leaving the bridge completely stranded and unused from between 1973 until 1977, during which it earned the nickname of “Bridge to Nowhere” as it literally connected nothing to nowhere. The bridge finally opened to traffic in 1977 after the I-794 connections were completed, and has become a popular iconic symbol and backdrop for the city skyline.”
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