Pohono Bridge

Pohono Bridge crosses the Merced River at the foot of Bridalveil Fall — a stone arch that has carried Yosemite's Valley Loop Road since 1934, the kind of infrastructure that was built to look like it had always been there. When the Merced is calm in early morning before the valley winds rise, the bridge's reflection in the river completes a circle of stone and water in the frame below the arch. This shot was made at first light, the bridge in shadow while the canyon walls above it caught direct sun — a brief condition before the sun drops into the valley and flattens the light. The bridge is named for the Ahwahneechee word for Bridalveil Fall, "Pohono," meaning puffing wind.