page. Morgan City and Berwick are two of the best locations
for an amateur photographer. You can't take a bad picture
in these places. Well, you can if don't try to avoid power lines,
but aside from that, it is photo heaven.
This picture is here because I liked the red building which
is a historic lighthouse. This stuff just shows up, pop, take a shot.
I've backed off any commitment to reaching Lafayette and I may go no further on this project as it is getting very redundant though the rides that make any future coverage redundant are gone from the public eye. But.......some house cleaning first.
Y'all know Al.
Al likes his picture taken and I can't deny him because if he doesn't see himself on these pages once in a while, he mopes and then has to go off to S. Abbeville to get a spanking to sharpen up his attitude a bit. That's all I have to say on the subject, so hold your e-mails.
Hey Wally, remember Bruce at SCS went down there for the same reason? You never know what little joys some people dig. Different strokes for different folks, pun intended. George, didn't you go with him one time? I never got a report. I noticed you ginning and standing a lot. You did, didn't you!!
Here you go Al, save the trip. This was Al when he claimed for Spain all of the lower Atchafalya, including Berwick and Morgan City, Amelia, Patterson, Tiger Island and beyond. It was January, no coats were needed.
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Which was too bad because Al really likes to wear the
red fancy one for these pictures.
But, alas, he's been warm natured ever since he
got that electric jolt at work.
And, there are two things that really irk him, one, putting
down the USA, you wussy liberals......
and, two, making fun of his recent weight gain
and eyebrow hair.
Oh, this is his "Post the Muslim Terrorist"
Crusaders outfit. {btw, "post" means to strike
a blow, to hit, hurt or damage an opponent or
enemy". It's a 1950's New Orleans thing. You'd
have had to have been there.} Say that 5 times fast.
He has a matching sword.
Oh, Berwick, sorry to stray from the official straight and
narrow academic format which I yearn to maintain.
Again, this is the old depot picture from the MC website.
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This is my copyrighted copy of a picture I originally took
which is below this protected version. The red arrow
points to where I think the water tank and depot were.
The yellow arrow points to where I think the turnaround
began. If you repeat that without permission, I'll tell Al.
Do you want to "go there"?
To the left there are 2 stop signs. Remember the further one.
How was "stop" spelled? Just checking.
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There is a 2 story house to the left of it. I think the
original rose garden /depot picture was taken from there
on the second story toward the river, but not all the way.
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Remember the stop sign? It is to my left. See the raised
area. It's the fill for the turnaround. That's the levee ahead.
I almost said "sea wall" thinking it was a wall which it is but
there is no sea, only one bad to the bone river on the other side.
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There it goes going east.
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Here it came right by these buildings (going east). Now it's used by the
gravel road. I wonder if there's any latent seismic rumblings there.
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This is a picture of the next depot down by sixth street.
I didn't take it and do not claim it or anything. I don't
know how that picture got here?
Here's GE's shot with my white trail of the TA. We in
the railroad world like to use initials. Keith Richards once
wrote a song about T&A, might not be the same. My TA
means "Turn Around" or condensed, it can be spelled,
"Turnaround". Your choice, depending on it being a noun
or imperative verb.
Here's Garmin's: Ya got the train bridge, the new 90 bridge
and the old 90 bridge, going bottom to top.
I can't leave Morgan City w/0 saluting the shrimp boat,
Spirit of Morgan City. See!! Shots everywhere.
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And the Oil Industry.
I'm going to have a showing of my MC/Berwick bridge
photo art at some point. I can't here because this page
has gotten too large. So, forget it for now, I can't worry
about Al roaming S. Abbeville so I had to display a few
of his old shots to maintain his sense of purpose. He just wrote
me that he's bought 3 more Lt. Dave Robicheaux books to
help with his deteriorating ego. Now, all I have to worry
about is him roaming west New Iberia and forgetting to
call him Lieutenant.
Al and I found ourselves on the Berwick side north of the
old 90 bridge.
That one. Magically, we moved south of the car bridges
but still north of the rail bridge.
I don't know if he or I took this one, but it's pretty good
of the rail bridge. No date, probably Al's. The inclusion
of the 3 yellow blocks make it. Seriously.
This is the bygone Berwich Depot. I want to credit the guy who
actually gave me permission to use it. I will at the bottom
of the page to make it look like a footnote. Naw, I will here, or I'll
forget. Bert Berry is his name. CLICK HERE to go there.
Great stuff.
Its location is where these shots were taken. Again,
these are Al's shots. He had stationed (pun unintended)
himself here, the side track to the station and to the area
between the sea wall and river. You can see the incline
to cross the levee and approach the bridge.
When suddenly, what should appear?
The Sunset.
It was a moment.
But wait. I was closer to the bridge. Mine and more
on the next page. Later.
Rosco just called and wondered why I'd left out his narrative.
I explained that this was not a real page and it was all in his
imagination. But you can't fool a ghost and surely Rosco is a ghost
since he wrote this in 1935. But maybe not, medical science
being what it is today. Anyway, Rosco didn't have that much to
say about Berwick. I'm going to quote him as I was getting
tired of the previous arrangement and you don't want to mess
around with no ghost.
From the USGS Survey book:
Berwick.
Elevation 14 feet.
Population 1,679.
New Orleans 82 miles.
After crossing the Atchafalaya River over a long bridge the train reaches Berwick, a companion town to Morgan City and sharing with it the river trade and crab industry. In the region west of Berwick much of the land is under cultivation in sugarcane, but some woodland remains. An abandoned sugar mill (Glenwild) is conspicuous north of the railroad 3 miles west of Berwick.
A typical small sugar plantation may be seen just north of the tracks 2 miles beyond Patterson (near Calumet siding), with groups of whitewashed houses for laborers and many very large, handsome moss-hung live oaks.
That's it. Tomorrow I will exhibit all of my bridge pictures, including my version of the train crossing the lift bridge. You'll need to take a pill because it will get exciting.