The Queen Emma Bridge on the small Caribbean Island of Curacao is located in its capital city of Willemstad. The structure actually floats on the water on pontoons that look like little boats under it and it opens in the most peculiar way (no upwards) as you will see in a bit! We were quite lucky enough to be there in the right place at the right time to see it opening for a boat to pass through and it was quite exciting! The bridge connects one side of the city to the other and it one of the major tourist attractions on the island.
We arrived on the punda side of the city as it is called and it was so colorful and vibrant as you would expect of the dutch influenced country. There was so much hustle and bustle as well as a steady stream of people walking along the bridge but not so much that it was impassible.
Here is a wider view of the punda side of the city from the middle of the bridge. You can also see the pontoons beneath the bridge that provides buoyancy! You might think that there are pillars bu there are none at all connecting to the seabed at all.
We crossed the bridge and it was quite well made and study with wooden planks on the boardwalk itself. There were no creaking sound or anything of the sort as we passed and that was quite reassuring! The view above is an even wider angled view of the punda side of the city from where we started.
The other side, referred to as the otrabanda was just as vibrant and colorful with the waters being vibrant and blue in color on this side! Byt the time we got to this side, we were so drenched in sweat in the scorching Caribbean sun but the walk across such clean and beautiful waters was much worth it and it was not as uncomfortable as you may think!
When we crossed back across, back to the punda side, we were lucky enough to have just reached when a boat was passing through that required the bridge to be opened! What luck! Because of this, I was able to capture the bridge being opened as well as the chaos that ensued! All of the a sudden a loud bell started ringing and the bridge started sliding open with boat motors sliding the pontoons across the water horizontally! People who were still upon the bridge rushed to jump across on this side as you can see up in the shots above!
The security guard controlling the motors and the opening had to get involved as the space to jump across was getting smaller and smaller! You can see him with his hands outstretched in the top right of the photo above. He had a whistle and it was being blown quite loudly as the bell still rung!
As the space was large enough for the boat to pass, he puttered on through passed the bridge that was still opening up. You can see everyone standing and taking photos of the whole scene same as I! There was such a commotion that I did not noticed the huge crowd that gathered and I was quite glad to be at the front!
Apparently, the bridge will continue to swing open to the become parallel to the shore line on the other side once the opening process has started and a ferry service will be used to get people and vehicles from one side of city to the other until the bridge is motored back across to the original position!
Luckily, I was also able to document and capture what the smaller vessels do! For those boats that are small enough, they just sail right under the bridge between its pontoons without having to swing it open! you can see how they do it in the shots above! I found this so cool and also look at the color of the water itself! It was so clean and beautiful with no trash or debris whatsoever!
The Queen Emma Bridge is certainly one of the most unorthodox structures I have ever seen and its pontoon method of floating upon the water and swinging open is so breathtakingly awesome! The waters along are so amazing and it was so much fun being able to walk upon it, being there in the right place and time to see both the small vessels passing under as well as to see the massive thing swing open! Thanks a lot for coming along, cheers!
