an itsy bitsy problem

August 14, 2021 2:56 PM

Spider Bridge - "There is a beautiful new bridge in Ottawa, Canada. It's lit up at night, so it's a stunning way to cross this canal and see a gorgeous sunset at the same time. But there's a wee problem." (via)
posted by kliuless (29 comments total)

"average bridge spawns 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average bridge spawns 0 spiders per year. Spiders Bridge, who lives in Ottawa & spawns over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
posted by juv3nal at 3:00 PM on August 14, 2021 [39 favorites]

packs flame-thrower for trip to Ottawa
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:14 PM on August 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

spider friends!

Also, everyone should follow the poster Rosemary Mosco because she's awesome.
posted by scruss at 3:34 PM on August 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is a cool thing and not an invitation for half of Metafilter to once again convey how squicked out they are about spiders
posted by sageleaf at 3:36 PM on August 14, 2021 [45 favorites]

This is an extremely cool thing, but it is always a time to convey how squicked out I am about spiders.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:38 PM on August 14, 2021 [12 favorites]

Central Ottawa is not the most arachnophobe-friendly place. (Do I even need to say what the cw: is for?)
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:46 PM on August 14, 2021 [6 favorites]

This is great!
posted by frumiousb at 3:48 PM on August 14, 2021

I love this so much. I would be delighted by a bridge that came with bonus spider shadow-puppets! How wonderful!
posted by sciatrix at 4:03 PM on August 14, 2021 [7 favorites]

Okay, Ottawa is back on my bucket list. Somehow I thought it was just full of boring politicians and bureaucrats, not awesome spiders.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 4:18 PM on August 14, 2021

Is the spider bridge near the, ah, statue? Or do the spiders not have a sense of humor?
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 4:20 PM on August 14, 2021

To put it another way:

Bonsoir, Maman!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:37 PM on August 14, 2021 [6 favorites]

Ah, I see ricochet biscuit beat me to the Maman link.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:46 PM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Maman is a fabulous landmark at which to meet your friends for a visit to the National Gallery.
posted by aclevername at 4:52 PM on August 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

At least a spider problem doesn't smell as bad as a wee problem.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 4:59 PM on August 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

Maman is about a 20 minute walk north of the bridge, along the canal, then down Sussex.
posted by bonehead at 5:00 PM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

At least a spider problem doesn't smell as bad as a wee problem.

The problem is that a spider problem can engender a wee problem.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:41 PM on August 14, 2021 [5 favorites]

Best of the web.
posted by lhauser at 6:11 PM on August 14, 2021 [26 favorites]

Love this! The city should install some lenses to magnify the spider shadows on the bridge. And if those lenses wind up focusing the sun’s rays during the day, killing birds that fly through the focused beam, and the bird bodies attract more insects, and the insects attract more spiders, all the better.

TL;DR: More spiders.
posted by ejs at 6:14 PM on August 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

TL;DR: More spiders.

La Machine was working on that a few years back in Ottawa.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:17 PM on August 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

I love this so much.
posted by Zumbador at 10:38 PM on August 14, 2021

Spider bridge,
Spider bridge,
Does whatever a spider bridge can....

Can it span,
A canal?
Bet your ass,
It can, pal!

LOOK OUT!
Here comes the spider bridge ...
posted by Paul Slade at 11:17 PM on August 14, 2021 [15 favorites]

Surprised that nobody (including article author) has pointed out that the root cause of this (spider shadows) is that the lights don't have diffusers on them. Apparently they are bare LEDs, which are tiny point sources, which throw sharp shadows. Bare LEDs look bad too ...
posted by intermod at 11:48 PM on August 14, 2021 [5 favorites]

@intermod yeah, my reaction to those shadows was "those lights must be eye-piercing if you look up at them." The spiders are worth lowered gazes, but yow, those must be some serious point sources.

When our local grid-of-LEDs streetlight cast branch shadows, they don't show twigs, so they wouldn't show spider legs. The sources on this bridge are tiny.
posted by away for regrooving at 12:37 AM on August 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

The beauty of it is that you can't look up at the tiny LED lights unless you are less than 2.5 feet tall. They are mounted below the hand rails. This allows you to see your feet and spider shadows while also viewing night-time scenery in its full glory.
posted by heatherlogan at 5:44 AM on August 15, 2021 [9 favorites]

This is awesome great! I'm usually on top of what's going on in Ottawa, so this is too funny that I'm finding out about this on MeFi. Thanks for posting kluiless.
posted by storybored at 7:47 AM on August 15, 2021

Yes, I would definitely be one of the people who went to this bridge expressly to see the spiders. Spiders are the best!
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:15 PM on August 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

Hopefully the lean into this like Austin did with its bat bridge.
posted by jmauro at 6:09 PM on August 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

I see no problem here.
posted by Toddles at 9:56 PM on August 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I visited Austin's bat bridge a few years ago, I was disappointed to see they'd failed to call their telephone information service The Batphone. Seems such a waste ...
posted by Paul Slade at 1:32 AM on August 16, 2021 [2 favorites]