Sunset Stroll on the Pitt Street Bridge

Last night, after a great dinner of homemade bar-b-que and slaw, Christine and I took our new dog Cassie to the Pitt Street Bridge. Cassie is new to us; but, not brand new. She needs some socialization skills and thought the Pitt Street Bridge would be a good place for her to acquire some.

We met our friends Burt and Jenny in the parking area and took a walk to the end of the pier/bridge, watched the sunset and had a good time catching up. There were a few families crabbing and fishing all the way up the walkway to the bridge; as well as a few people fishing on the bridge. Several other couples were walking, with and without dogs. We also saw a runner run to the end of the bridge, touch it, and head back toward Pitt Street. On a weekend, it is not uncommon to see several families having portraits taken with the Ravenel Bridge or many of the other lowcountry sights in the background.

The young dad and his three boys fishing at the end of the pier were having a great time. At one point, one of the young boys mentioned that he didn’t care if he even caught any fish, it was just nice to be out at the water with his family. That is often my sentiment when I am out kayak fishing with Christine.

If you have not been to the Pitt Street Bridge, you are missing out. The area has been recently converted into a park includes beautiful palm trees, a grassy area for picnics, and benches to sit and watch the boats, ships, tugs, fishermen, sunset, or any of the other wonderful and relaxing sights of the harbor and marsh area.

It was a beautiful evening with a light breeze. The sunset over the Charleston Peninsula was gorgeous. The clouds were breaking just around the sun so that we could see the orb behind the skyline of downtown Charleston. Just above the clouds, there was a slit of pink cotton candy, some more clouds and an expanse of light. I thought it was very cool.

As the five of us, including Cassie, stood at the end of the dock we were able to see a few fishing boats, what might have been a Coast Guard boat, a tug pushing a barge, and cargo ships go by.

Another sight we were able to see was the Ben Sawyer Bridge swung to allow a tugboat through. There are not many swing bridges around and I am glad this one is being replaced with another of the same type. One of the memories I have of my younger days was waiting in traffic as the drawbridges were raised and lowered as our family went to the beach. We watched the boats go by and it was always special because if we were in drawbridge traffic, that meant we were going to the beach. Bridge traffic is another thing to love about living in the East Cooper area. If you are in too much of a hurry to enjoy waiting for a bridge, you are in too much of a hurry to live in a coastal area.