Photo Shoot: A heart-pounding walk on Sagamore Bridge to bring you a construction close-up

Combat photographer Robert Capa said, “If your pictures are good enough, you aren’t close enough."

Capa made the D-Day landing with troops into Normandy and had a front row spot for history his entire photo career. Taking that enthusiasm, I took on a much less dangerous, but still heart-pounding adventure, taking a walk back and forth over the Sagamore Bridge, now under construction.

Anyone within a 500-mile radius of Cape Cod is familiar with this famous structure. Built in 1933, this venerable old steel girder arch is often the first and last chapter of any Cape Cod vacation, and usually not a good read. It has become famous for stalled traffic year round.

When then-Gov. Mitt Romney vowed to rip up the old Sagamore Rotary on the mainland side, hope rose that traffic would flow faster. I was there on Dec. 3, 2004 when the governor picked up a jackhammer he thought was off and posed for a line-up of media.

But it was on. He pulled the lever and sprayed the photo crew with concrete shrapnel - indeed, the best groundbreaking I have ever covered.

Traffic flow improved, but 19 years later, it's still a bottleneck, especially now. Down to one lane in each direction with flimsy orange cones separating oncoming traffic from the workers, it is a morning commuter’s nightmare come to life.

More: Photo Shoot: Photography like baking takes patience - and often a Plan B

My voyage to the bridge was by Route 6A, arriving at the Christmas Tree Shops parking lot about 7:50 a.m. I parked, lashed down all my gear, making sure nothing was loose and headed up the sidewalk.

The view is always spectacular, the road and construction noise was deafening. I hug the sidewalk far right. Still, there is only about two feet between the camera lens and wide truck side view mirrors.

The stalled traffic coming on Cape was far than worse heading off. Construction workers in Day-Glo vests and decal covered hard hats were lit up in the morning sun, working nonchalantly next to a steady stream of distraught and running late motorists going 30 mph. I was getting way more attention than I wanted, honking horns, finger gestures and even several motorists stopping with windows down, demanding to have their picture taken.

More: Photo Shoot: A.I.=Artificial Images

I photographed all the familiar scenes, lines of traffic, distraught drivers, and even the jackhammer crews chopping up pavement just like the governor way back when. But the image that stuck, a pair of shadows and a good old-fashioned shovel, could have been a scene from the original build 90 years ago.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Sagamore Bridge construction photos: Stalled traffic, hard hats