Brug over de Oude Maas bij Barendrecht, doorzicht vanuit het noorden Possibly 1888 - 1889

This photograph, taken by Johann Georg Hameter in 1888, captures the Oude Maas bridge at Barendrecht. Two sentry towers, like gateways to a new era, flank the bridge. Perched atop each tower is a weather vane, each bearing a cross, an ancient symbol that long predates Christianity. Consider how this symbol of direction and change, the weather vane, echoes the cross that crowns churches, once guiding souls, now perhaps guiding the flow of commerce and progress across the river. Throughout history, we see this appropriation and adaptation; symbols are imbued with new meaning yet retain vestiges of their original power. Perhaps the cross here speaks to an unconscious desire to imbue the physical, secular world with the sacred. This photograph, therefore, is not just a document of engineering but also of the human spirit, eternally seeking connection to the transcendental, even as it builds bridges to the future. This timeless cycle reminds us that progress is never a straight line.