Photo of the Day (5/4/08)

by Jeremy Kressmann on


No matter how many times I visit San Francisco, I never get tired of looking at the Golden Gate bridge. Whether I’m downtown, across the bay in Berkeley or Oakland, or taking off at SFO, this iconic landmark perpetually anchors my view of this great city. So I was particularly amused when I saw this shot of everyone’s favorite San Francisco bridge by ohad*. Considering it’s one of the most photographed landmarks in all of the Bay Area, it’s hard to find a photo that’s a not a “cliched” image of the bridge shrouded in clouds. But this shot really caught my eye – the way it plays with perspective, the sense of movement it conveys and the unique angle all come together for a fun, eye-catching photo.

Got a great photo you’d like to share? Join the Gadling pool on Flickr to have your great shot considered for our Photo of the Day.

World’s longest sea bridge opens today near Shanghai

by Iva Skoch on

Here is another one to add to the list of China’s Best, Longest, Tallest and Who-Knows-What-Else.

This afternoon, the 20-mile Bay Bridge started trial operation as a motorcade of 180 sedans and 22 buses drove across the world’s longest sea bridge, Shanghai Daily reports. The bridge begins at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 40 miles from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. It will reduce the 250-mile drive between Ningbo and Shanghai by 80 miles and shave about one hour off the trip. Time is money, even in China.

With a design life of 100 years, the 11.8-billion-yuan (US$1.69 billion) bridge has six lanes with a designed speed of up to 60 miles per hour. The bridge is expected to help boost economic development in the Yangtze Delta Region.

I want know is how the heck they managed to shoot the area with blue skies? The colors of the sky I remember from Shanghai were the same color as the river.

Prague’s Charles Bridge For Sale

by Iva Skoch on

As if Madonna is not causing enough stir with her European tour, she got herself wrapped up in another controversy.

Louis Vuitton invited her to perform at a party on the Charles Bridge before her September concert in Prague. She accepted. The controversy is not with Madonna this time, it is with the bridge. LV booked the 14th century Czech national treasure for a mere $54,000 from Sept. 6-10, just to throw a private VIP party.

It would require the city to close it to all traffic for those days. Starved for cash (and probably after a few bribes) the City of Prague actually said yes, until some historians and politicians raised a big stink about it.

In an article titled Material World, the Prague Post quoted a senator who said that the Charles Bridge is no “whore for sale” and compared renting the bridge to “holding an eating party inside St. Vitus Cathedral [the famous Gothic church inside the walls of Prague Castle].”

Enough people protested that the city actually had to call the party off, suggesting to LV that they can take the waterfront instead. Poor little VIPs. Must feel a lot like wanting a Louis Vuitton bag and settling for a Gap totebag instead.