Milwaukee Riverwalk

There are lots of waterways in Milwaukee, but the main river flowing through the centre of town has footpaths along both sides - this area of downtown is called the River Walk district.

I'd been up for lunch along Old World 3rd Street, not knowing about the river walk.  There is an awful lot of construction going on - roads, pavements, new buildings - and the road and pavement surfaces are very uneven.

On my way back, I followed the path, crossing the river from time to time.  There are lots of low bridges and plenty of tall boats wanting to navigate the river, so all of the bridges have to open.  Some, like in the first picture just have a rectangular section that is raised straight upwards.  Others are bascule bridges, like Tower Bridge, which pivot open.

It is not unusual to be hearing the alarm from one or more bridges that is preparing to open, as the bridges are fairly close together and often the next one will start opening as the previous one finishes opening.


All along the route, there are special sculptures that have been installed.  Some are more impressive than others. 

There are quite a lot of bronzes of ducks and families of ducks.

The "Dream with the Fishes for Aurora" is installed on the wall of the building.  It has fish, bubbles, buoys, waves and seaweed, which at sunset is lit up, so unfortunately I've not seen it illuminated.

"What are we to make of this, apart from a bonfire?"

Some sculptures are of real people, such as  Jacques Marquette, a key figure in the history of Milwaukee.  Some are of fictional figures, such as the Bronze Fonz, from Happy Days.


And then there are some that are just tangles of metal with weird names.

This one that looks like a falling-down shed.

"This is art.  Art with a capital F." as the Punt & Dennis sketch describes.