Markus N.
Yelp
Thank you, Blackberry, for the new app. But for you my travels would be a secret, because there'd be no aspiration for royalty, no temptation to leave an electronic fingerprint places I go. But for you, I'd not have the reminder of the places I've visited, the places important enough to share.
I am the Duke of the Tower Bridge. My only other claim to royalty is a wall in Oakland. I rule over inanimate objects. Or objets d'art.
Or is it the other way around?
To my eyes, this bridge is the prettiest human-built structure in all of Sacramento, if not a radius of many miles around. That it was the first vertical-lift bridge in the California highway system, or that it was built because the powers thought that in wartime the single other bridge wouldn't be adequate (as if anybody would want to invade Sacramento), are interesting factlets, but for me they're only verbal icing on a far more substantial cake.
My intimate acquaintance was made on Jack the Ripper nights spent on the deck of the nearby Delta King, sipping a beverage, smoking alone in a deck chair. Listening only to the river flowing and the occasional tread across the metal decking of the bridge. Doppler hum, river, doppler hum the other way. Through drops of water the bridge glows in an otherworldy way.
By daylight it's different, but no less beautiful. It keeps my company every time I visit. I pledge to be a benevolent and appreciative ruler.