Floating Iron Stairs ... Since 1894 by auntietk
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
The Heceta Head Lighthouse still has its original iron stairs. I believe they're attached to the floor at the top and at the bottom of each section, but nowhere else. What I AM sure about is this: at no point does the circular stairwell touch the outside wall, and there is no center support. (Has to be the floor supports, yes? That's what I'm thinking.)
The pole you see on the far right holds up the light, which is directly above. The stairs are a separate bit of business.
This is the uppermost section, closed to the public, that the lightkeeper would have climbed in order to service the light.

Comments (34)
Well photographed and fascinating information, Tara! It's cool you got an inside look at this! Not sure I'd feel to warm and fuzzy about those stairs, though - although the look very well constructed. Super capture!
I'd climb them in a heart-beat. Great capture do you have any more POVs of this wonderful spiral staircase?
I've seen stairways like this and they have a nicely gentle sway to them: nothing perilous or even vertigo-inducing, but something easily noticed if you know what to feel for. Rather like being in the Sears Tower (pfft, who is that Willis guy anyway?) on a windy day: the whole thing sways and twists rather nicely. I love the shape of this and the "details within details" POV you're so good at. Iron is such an intriguing thing: so heavy, so strong, so dense, so much a part of our planetary core, and yet it can be as delicate (comparatively) as a hanging stairway built by spiders (they're good at that let's-make-something-really-strong-out-of-something-as-flimsy-as-silk sort of thing, so I'm sure that at least one spider had some say in the construction of this stairwell...okay, that's how it would have been in my world, since I have it on good authority that spiders talk there, and give lots of (unsolicited) advice. This is a great shot and I love the way the light just whispers into this. It reminds me of stairs I saw in a cathedral in Prague (different sort of stairs.) The light was the same: alive and oddly transparent, if that makes any kind of sense.
You have 'high lighted' a lovely bit of engineering here Tara, Great shot.
OH Yes, that could make one unsure about using those stairs or rather make ME sure not to use them. LOL ! Excellent capture Tara :-)
very nice capture
What a marvelous representation of the art of the industrial age. Graceful and almost delicate. Wonderful details. Great capture.
A most wonderful picture..but for once I think I need to see MORE to understand the structure! (Bother that design qualification..)
Beautiful capture!!
I have a strange phobia about climbing ladders. Stairs like this totally invoke that phobia. Look how much like a ladder they are! Totally aside from that, it's a fantastic photograph, very evocative. (Evocative enough to make my stomach do a little phobic flip ;))
wonderful details in this shot ! like the way of lights this make a dreamy feeling!
Excellent capture!
Engineering ingenuity! Well captured, Clive
Very cool photo composed wonderfully!
Wow! Since 1894...I wonder how many things built in 1994 will stand the test of time as well as this...Fine capture Tara.
AmaZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzing clarity and details!
No! Would not go up these if you paid me thousands! I can't do spiral stairs! Freaks me out! Great idea and fine shot! Rob
Cool!
I'm with Rob - freaks me too. Hope you didn't climb it?!?! Excellent image though Dierbaar. The pov is spot on.
Wonderful tidbit and love the shot, I love ironworks. This reminds me of those attic stairs that fold down.
nice abstract
Excellent capture! :)
Oh, beautiful in front of the bright window; love the shapes of the iron pieces making it up. What a great design! And what a beautiful photo!
cool stare warm hugs, Linda Kaye
There's something so beautiful and unique about your composition, Tara! I love the view.. it's just revealing enough, but yet modest and mysterious. Very informative and curious capture that you've tickled the mind with. Wonderful lighting and feel to this!
Gravity :o)..
As I am not a regular kind of visitor to lighthouses, I can't say to have seen staircases like that at all - but find the steel or rather iron-designed staircase unique, somewhat unusual but very intriguing, BB
Very interesting, and cool image!
I don't know where to start--there are so many parts of this that are SO good---the light, the detail, the POV--I don't think WOW covers it!!
VERY nicely done.