Geodesic Doom

Unless they're world famous, say, The Golden Gate or, more latterly, Øresund, bridges tend to connect destinations rather than form destinations in themselves. This being said, I was curious to see the new Adur Ferry Bridge on a recent visit to the Shoreham. Replacing the charming-but-reedy walkway, cast from concrete in the 1920s, this glass and steel hybrid for pedestrians and cyclists has transformed the way people use the town.

 

On the way home we take the coastal road, flanked with warehouses and processing plants, more like massive machines than buildings proper. Kingston Baci lighthouse is still there, topped inexplicably with a bronze sphere, but something else is missing; the dark geodesic dome that glowered like an HQ for sci-fi baddies.

One day planning and conservation officers will get their knickers all twisted over odd, outmoded structures like these but, for now at least, they're preserved for posterity on Google Street View.