Jar of Goodness 2.13.22: Adrian’s Island Jefferson City

. . . The weekly virtual “gratitude jar.”

This week, I’m expressing thanks for Jefferson City’s new public park on Adrian’s Island.

The park is named Deborah Cooper Park, and the soaring pedestrian bridge linking it to the Missouri State Capitol grounds, and over the Union Pacific tracks, is named the Missouri Bicentennial Bridge. And Adrian’s Island isn’t technically an island, since it’s broadly and clearly connected to land. But Memphis has its “Mud Island,” which is about the same thing.

(Oh, and all you naysayers, who've been against the development of this new park? You know, because it's expensive, and because it'll flood? . . . Well you can kindly stay off it. Go someplace else.)

I’m not going to repeat a bunch of stuff that’s already been covered in the papers and elsewhere.

But I will share some pictures I took of the place on a recent visit. If you haven’t been to see it yet, you really should go. Though until it gets genuinely warm, make sure you dress extra warmly. The breezes can be kind of stiff off the river.

And you do get some nice views of the river. And the Highway 50/63 bridge, too.

The views from the soaring bridge over the tracks are pretty nifty, too. Look for waterfowl and gulls and bald eagles!

At this point, landscaping is nonexistent. They had time before winter to plant several swamp white oaks—yes! Beautiful, poetic, hardy native hardwood! And they applied grass seed to the dirt surfaces, and installed some anti-erosion fencing, but that’s about all. By now, after rains and snow and meltwater, erosion is happening anyway, and they’re going to have their hands full reseeding. Hopefully they won’t make it all be just . . . lawngrass. (Aren't there enough places for people to throw balls around in this city?) But we’ll see.

Okay, and you get good views of the dredging barges and the sand plant across the river, and whatever they’re doing.

I appreciate being able to finally see the railroad cut in the bluff on the north side of the capitol. When you stand at the top of that bluff, by the Signing of the Louisiana Purchase statue, you see the river beyond, and you can kind of see a few of the siding tracks, but apart from the brush and weeds, you can’t get a good sense of the actual bluff and the extent of the tracks. It’s neat to see that perspective.

AND, if you’re into trains, the overpass offers great views of those, too! But that’s another post.