This coastal freeway is the longest of any in California, linking Los Angeles to San Francisco and beyond. This overpass carries the highway over downtown Santa Barbara’s State Street. Six people are using its underpass here. I catch two of them within it, while two others approach from either end, and two more just are exiting. I made this image just as the people within the underpass stepped into a pool of light coming from an overhead vent. The rhythmic spacing of the people provides the point of my story, as well as creating the focal point of the scene. The rest of the photograph is an exercise in geometry. A massive vertical column divides my image and supports the weight of the overpass. It also separates the pair of arches that crown the scene. Meanwhile, a series of diagonal, horizontal, curving and vertical groves decorate the exterior wall of the underpass and help organize the image. Those grooves are echoed on the far right by the graceful curves of State Street’s traffic lanes carrying both the eye and traffic through the underpass.