Mr. Relic;

Obsession is only one step away from lunacy so you are welcome here....my two cents.

Google "Taikobashi" in the images section and you will get a lot of different styles. Digging deeper, there is a reason for each one of the styles. The ever so elusive "why". If you looking for red bridges versus Japanese bridges then open up your search to include Chinese influences as well. Heck, try each country in Asia. I have seen them in Taiwan and Singapore as well.

The bridge can be a powerful symbol in a garden. To paraphrase someone that used to post here, it is used to "go from here to over there". If you are into that sort of thing you gotta ask yourself: So where is "here" and where is "over there"?. Then if you are really rolling, you figure out "what is it going to take to get from here to there". If you got all of that nailed down, then painting a bridge red is easy.

Now if you asked about "blue bridges" that would really be hard...........

Michael

Hi Oldrelicsee,
If you click on the link below and click on the bridge page, and take a look at the bridge that I built for my Japanese garden, it replaced a red one that I had made earlier that eventually started to rot, I call this bridge the "bridge of the four seasons"
George.

Here is a link that might be useful: George's Japanese Garden

Just type Japanese Garden Bridge using Google Image Search. Try Excite Image search as well - they often have different pictures.

Here's just one of their results -

Click here

A big red bridge? Sounds ostentatious to me. Maybe you should try visiting a Chinese (not Japanese) garden forum because they're into such things.

I think a natural wooden bridge would fit better with a natural stream. I know there are some red bridges in Japan because I've seen photos, but every bridge I've actually seen in Japan has been stone or natural wood color.

Love your idea for a bridge, but first, I'd check out fema.gov, and click on the flood map store to see if that natural stream is in a flood zone. Please don't assume that because you've never seen nor heard of it flooding that it will not flood. Natural streams are highways to discharge the effects of a big rain. Your bridge could become an obstruction that causes upstream or downstream effects (and could be washed out). I'd also check with town/city/county authorities and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management at http://www.adem.state.al.us/ to see if any permits are required for the bridge. Good luck to you.

Do you know the technique beding building these bridges? I have studied the design, and I actually built one using only matches and NO glue ;) The trick is to make each pole support the next, and the design will be extremly durable, since the weight is distributed so even.

kind regards
Henrik

Herb, What makes you so certain those two bridges are in Japan?

Keith - I didn't say they were both in Japan.

The first one is captioned "Taken at the Shiojiri Niwa Japanese Garden located in Mishawaka Indiana USA".

The other one, on the other hand, I described as 'somewhere in Japan' because I found it on a web site that indicates that it displays pictures of Japan.. The picture has this URL - http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/Japan/19/DewaSanzan/Hagurosan_Bridge.JPG
Also click here for the website

Hi there:
Just started building my Japanese garden and built a small version of a bridge somewhere in Kanagawa prefecture in Japan. You can see my small version in the photo gallery at ruxton.ca
Now I am looking for information on a covered bridge, just the centre, to go over a pond now under construction.