I had the opportunity to drive my car (yes I own one) over the NYC Willis Avenue bridge the other day. For those of you who do not live in this fair city, it is one of the most dilapidated East River transverses. The part you drive over is steel grid intermixed with asphalt plus bolted on steel plates (to fill in the holes) and gobs of extra asphalt (to fill in more holes). Should any part of your car be loose (or any of your dental fillings) they will be further loosened by traversing this structure.
Thankfully, there is a pedestrian/bicycle path on the side. While it is less jarring, be sure your bowels are empty before you choose to cross by bike.
Happily, Mayor Mike and his friends have somehow secured funding to replace it (no, not from IBM, Goldman Sachs, or Facebook). The new structure now sits next to the old structure waiting to be put in place. The original was built in 1901 and carries 70,000 cars a day. It cost $1.67million to put in place.
The new one cost $612million (so far).
So here is my question. Are bridges sexy? I think the curves of the old bridge are inspiring. The new bridge leaves me cold. My wife thinks I am absolutely nutty to even attach a human quality to a machine.
Is this a male thing? I look at my bicycles and get dreamy.
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment