American Scientist

Many cities—such as New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, London, Paris, Venice, and Istanbul—strike me as veritable museums of bridges, not only because they display large collections of unique works of structural art, but also because these works represent a range of historical periods and genres created by a variety of structural artists working in different media. I began to wonder if “museum of bridges” was a term commonly used in conjunction with such cities, so I searched for it online. The first thing that came up was the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. This result was not what I was expecting, but it certainly does fit the search terms and, upon reflection, is not an inappropriate place to begin thinking about museums of anything. Indeed, the result reminded me that my most memorable experiences with so many human-made things—cities, bridges, buildings, museums—have been enhanced by my being introduced to them by extraordinary people who wanted to share their knowledge and appreciation of them.