Just a photo from my week. Every Milwaukee School of Engineering graduate since the 1970s will immediately recognize this as the skywalk between the Walter Schroeder Library and the Science Building (officially the Allen-Bradley Hall of Science and Fred Loock Engineering Center).
I’ve walked through the bridge so many thousands of times since starting my job at MSOE in 1996(!) that I don’t really notice it anymore as I walk across. The bridge provides an especially lovely view of the “Mall” (the “Werwath Mall,” named for the father and son founder and first two presidents of the school, Oscar and Karl) after a snowfall, but other than that, I’m usually too preoccupied with thoughts of class prep, etc., to pay attention to my surroundings.
This day, though, Tuesday I think, was bright and sunny, and as I walked through after class, I suddenly became aware of how the contrast between sharp, dark shadows and bright sunlight added fun interest to the kaleidoscopic geometry of perspective it revealed. So I stopped short, took a picture, then kept rolling along with my cart (full of teaching paraphernalia) over to the doorway into the Library Building.
One thing weird and slightly unsettling that I learned while taking this photo: when you stand on a bridge (instead of walking), you can feel a slight vibration and “give” in the floor from the footsteps of other people crossing over. This is apparently a completely normal thing, having nothing to do with safety. Still, it’s a phenomenon producing enough discomfort for pedestrians that bridge designers will routinely add components to dampen the sensation, again strictly to make people feel safer, not to make the bridges any safer in reality, because they’re already plenty safe.
Isn’t that interesting? I learned something new about bridges just because it was a sunny day and I saw a familiar place in a new light (literally😀).
Katherine Wikoff 
Great pic. It brings back so many memories – mostly good. I loved it when General Studies was on the third floor of the library and so convenient to everything…almost everything. We were more of a family there than at the Grohman. I too have crossed that bridge more times than I can count. When is the egg drop contest…coming up soon I’d imagine. Drop an egg from the bridge and see if it will survive impact with the concrete below.
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Oh, I meant to mention the egg drop and forgot! We’re on break this coming week, so I imagine it’ll happen once we’re back on campus.
I agree with everything you’ve said. I loved the feeling of “family “ we had in the Library Building, not only with our own department but also with Math and EECS. Today there are people in our department I never see except at our biweekly meetings. And many of the people I know in other departments are folks I originally became friendly with thanks to our tighter quarters back in the day.
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In grade school we had a “breezeway” between the church and the school. This reminds me of that! It was always so cold in the winter! Beautiful pic!
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It’s fun to trigger an unexpected memory of something so mundane that was integrated into your daily life at one time. I wonder what other grade school memories might surface now that you’ve visited that breezeway in your thoughts today!
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“I learned something new about bridges just because it was a sunny day and I saw a familiar place in a new light.”
Interesting synchronicity. I very recently read an article about how we acclimate to our surroundings and stop really seeing them, but there can be great value in finding a way to bring fresh eyes to familiar scenes. As you found!
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This is so beautiful—I love the way the sun shines on this covered walkway. I can tell it’s built for a cold climate!
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