Adam Davies

Substructures

A substructure is the name for the architectural elements (abutments, piers, bents) that support the deck of a bridge. In bridges built using the arch, girder, and truss systems popular in the late nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries, substructures create spaces that run below the deck like hidden passages or open tunnels. They are often missing a floor so that their space extends downwards, into the surrounding landscape. Highly engineered, but not designed for public access, these images reveal moments of dissonance and spatial juxtaposition that reframe the bridge’s relationship to the landscape.

Introductory Quote

A true revelation, it seems to me, will only emerge from stubborn concentration on a solitary problem. I am not in league with inventors or adventurers, nor with travelers to exotic destinations. The surest – also the quickest – way to awake the sense of wonder in ourselves is to look intently, undeterred, at a single object. Suddenly, miraculously, it will reveal itself as something we have never seen before.

— Cesare Pavese

Portfolio

Big Monocacy Bridge, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2015
On top of the interior piers of the deck plate girder bridge.
Old Town Bridge, Maryland pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2017
Concrete pier and steel substructure of a modern railway bridge.
Potomac River Bridge, Maryland pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2016
Heavily reinforced piers of pony/through plate girder bridge.
Norfolk Southern Bridge, West Virginia pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2016
Under the deck of a deck truss bridge for Norfolk Southern Railway crossing the Potomac River.
Sycamore Trolley Trestle, Washington DC pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2016
Abandoned and heavily overgrown trestle bridge.
Patapsco River Bridge, Baltimore pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2016
Under concrete arch bridge crossing a quiet section of the river.
Tonoloway Creek Aqueduct, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2017
Wood-lined arched interior of stone arch bridge.
Fort Wayne Bridge, Pittsburgh pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2017
Inside the lower deck of through truss bridge over Allegheny River.
McCoy Ferry Bridge, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2018
Interior of open deck truss of Western Maryland railway bridge over autumn landscape.
Licking Creek Bridge, Maryland pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2018
Interior of the deck truss of Western Maryland railway bridge.
Interstate 395, Baltimore pigment print 127 × 102 cm 50" × 40" 2018
Under the raised section of interstate 395 (with construction on the right pier) as it passes over at Baltimore harbor in the midst.
Highland Park Bridge, Pittsburgh pigment print 102 × 127 cm 40" × 50" 2018
Under the deck truss bridge over Allegheny River, covered in fog.