Bob Dover

Bob Dover is a geologist with more than 35 years of professional experience as a hydrologist and environmental project manager. He has spent most of the past 20 years leading environmental planning efforts for transportation, solar power, nuclear power, and pipeline projects. He has degrees from Beloit College and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and additional graduate study at Cornell University. He is (mostly) retired from his day job as an environmental project manager, and lives on a pond in Columbia, Maryland.

From 2013 to 2022, he hiked across and photographed more than 600 bridges throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, studying the manner in which people use bridges besides the obvious use of getting to the other side. In doing so, he found that bridges represent a unique intersection of his interests in human geography, architecture, and history. Bridges are historic, bridges influenced settlement patterns, bridges are decorated, bridges are turned into blank canvases for light shows, bridges serve as centers of government and community, and bridges are converted to use as bike trails. Bob wrote Bridgespotting to assist other travelers interesting in learning about the history and development of their next vacation or business meeting destination, and to provide a resource to communities constructing new bridges or developing options to rehabilitate their old, obsolete bridges.

In 2023, Bob turned his attention to the bridges of his hometown of Washington, D.C., and was shocked to find how they had changed in recent years. The historical bridges were still there, and still told the story of the foundation and growth of the city, its industries, and its neighborhoods. However, where the District had previously been dominated by unattractive, mid-century interstate highway bridges, the city was now improving the aesthetics, environment, walkability, and recreational attractions of its waterfronts with new works of public art, each with wide, safe sidewalks connecting regional bike trails.