#WHPemptyspaces

A few months ago, on one of my well-worm routes around town, I discovered a new and nifty shortcut that saves me from several traffic lights and congested intersections.

Oh, isn't that just about as good as Christmas morning?! I love surprises like that.

This cutoff is a pleasure to drive. With relatively light loads of traffic, the two-lane road winds its way through a mile or two of open country - woods, wetlands and a few scattered old houses.

And then there's this.

Yeah. My cute little back road takes a sharp corner, and suddenly dips underneath a major six-lane expressway. The scale of this concrete behemoth is massive, and its appearance is made even more shocking by the fact that you literally do not see it coming. 

It sticks out like a sore and gigantically large urban thumb in the lovely wooded landscape. 

But there is something fascinatingly ugly about this underpass, and from the moment I first saw it, I knew someday I would stop and photograph it with abandon.

And this Friday past, when Instagram revealed that the weekend hashtag project was entitled Empty Spaces, I knew my time had finally come. This afternoon's rare burst of sunshine was the perfect touch for creating an interesting array of light and shadows in this man-made cavern, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of capturing this strange monument.

All the while I was shooting, my mind was wandering to another massive under-the-bridge chamber I know - this one, down in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. 

However, that space is not empty. Therein lives a big and horrible troll

A couple years ago, my students and I paid an interesting visit to that great stone beast. But since today's tale is about empty spaces, I shall save the story of the Fremont Troll for another day.