I have often heard aperture ƒ/8 and aperture ƒ/11 being referred to as the who cares apertures.  The reason for this is because if you use them when your subject is very close to a wall or other background the depth of field makes very little difference.  They also are a great start for beginners capturing not only a subject close to the background but as you saw in the picture of the bridge above getting a nicely focused image that stretches into the horizon.

This bird was taken with aperture ƒ/8 leaving the bird and branch in focus and the background nicely blurred.