Accotink Creek flows through Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, a 1,200 acre preserve located at Army Garrison Fort Belvoir, Fairfax County, Virginia USA. The following gallery features a few photos of the new suspension bridge over the stream, taken during a photowalk on 23 March 2016.
The new bridge, designed and engineered by Western Wood Structures, retains much of the character of the old bridge. The attention to detail is extraordinary!
Looking ahead (above) and behind (below) along the deck of the new suspension bridge. The deck of the new bridge is rock solid, with none of the discomforting up-down/side-to-side motion of the old bridge!
Those who know me well know the next photo frustrates me because part of the bridge is clipped on the left edge of the photo. I did everything I could to get the entire bridge span in the frame, including standing in the creek and moving downstream as far as I could without water spilling into my knee-high rubber boots. Although the zoom lens of my Panasonic DMC-FZ150 was set for its maximum wide angle of 4.5mm (25mm, 35mm equivalent), the field of view isn’t wide enough for this shot. Same problem with the Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera and Fujinon XF18-55mm (27mm-82.5mm, 35mm equivalent) zoom lens in my backpack — my Panasonic digital camera is capable of shooting slightly wider angle photos than the Fujifilm camera/lens combo. I’ll bring my Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital camera and 16-35mm wide-angle zoom lens next time I visit the bridge.
The last photo was taken on 08 May 2014, when the new bridge was under construction. Now you can see the reason I took a one-year (or so) hiatus from visiting Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge.
Related Resources:
- Trail Map, Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, showing the location of the suspension bridge at one end of Beaver Pond Loop Trail.
- [The old] Suspension bridge crossing Accotink Creek, as it appeared on 23 October 2012.
Copyright © 2016 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
Tags: Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, Accotink Creek, bridge, gear talk, suspension bridge
walter sanford's photoblog 
March 29, 2016 at 10:24 am |
Walter, thank you for posting this! I am going to get myself over there asap!
March 29, 2016 at 11:03 am |
You’re welcome, Christy! If you send me a private message on Facebook, then I’ll share some suggestions for how to access ABWR and recommended places to go.
January 20, 2017 at 4:01 am |
[…] first photo shows a view of the underside of the new suspension bridge across Accotink Creek at Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge (ABWR), Fairfax County, Virginia […]
October 29, 2023 at 8:16 am |
Doesn’t seem to be any info easily available, but having just discovered this bridge yesterday (Oct 2023) can someone explain why the stairs are removed?