Uploaded on 2014-10-18 by kosborne

The older bridge in the picture was built with rocks from a local quarry - Sandstone that is available in the surrounding area. The newer bridge in the background is built with the more modern materials - concrete and steel. This material is also locally made here in Cleveland. So, both bridges are build from local materials. It seems to me though, that much more energy was required to manufacture the steel and concrete than to mine and deliver the sandstone. The photo does clearly show how much much more efficient the steel and concrete are - the newer bridge has much longer spans and much less material to hold up a bigger bridge. Other materials present are the wooden telephone poles - these are certainly not local to the area.I believe that they are cedar trees - which do not grow to this size near this area. Bricks make up one of the background buildings. This product is made within a hundred miles of the area, and they are transported by river. You can just see the edge of a raised drawbridge to the left. This spans the Cuyahoga river - used to transport many of the required materials for the steel and concrete industries. It makes good sense to use materials that are produced locally. We can say in Cleveland that concrete and steel are locally produced. One problem that comes to mind is the need for the mills to sell much more product than a local community can use. A steel mill must sell to communities on a national or even global basis in order to be competitive and survive. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14136612829737461.jpg