Let’s Alleviate the Washington Bridge Chaos Creatively — Architecture Critic Morgan

Let’s Alleviate the Washington Bridge Chaos Creatively — Architecture Critic Morgan

 

 

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Imagine if Rhode Island had a governor with the vision, courage, and common sense to transform the Washington Bridge debacle into something positive. Such a leader would pick up the phone and buy some gently used ferries from New York City, say, and open routes from Bold Point to Allens Avenue, from Riverside to Cranston. More beneficial than a mythical soccer stadium, such waterborne transit would offer an enhanced nautical experience for travelers and commuters.

 

 

Rhode Island is the only state in the union to have a holiday commemorating the American victory over the Empire of Japan, and it is the home of the Seabees. The legislature and our congressional delegation need to marshal some of our World War II can-do spirit and ask the Navy or the Corps of Engineers to throw down a pre-fabricated-truss Bailey bridge from India Point to the foot of Warren Avenue in Watchemoket. Our mayor and his counterpart in East Providence ought to lower the Crook Point Bascule Bridge and refurbish it as a link across the Seekonk for pedestrians between RIPTA buses. Or perhaps even a Dunkirk-style flotilla of water taxis taking passengers from cars on either shore. Why not press the Newport ferry into service?

 

 

How this city and state respond to our Washington Bridge crisis is not just a question of securing transportation funds and trying to replace the bridge in the next decade. It offers the opportunity to demonstrate our mettle. This is a watershed moment, wherein continued severance of one of the state’s primary transportation corridors could lead to a multi-generational decline. The failing bridge pins could easily be Providence’s San Francisco earthquake or the Chicago Fire–both of which sparked tremendous growth. Or, like the assassination of President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, an event from which the then magnificent city never fully recovered. Not to mention Baltimore, where the destruction of the Key Bridge is having dire national, even international, economic consequences.

 

 

 

How do our leaders see the city? Is it just a source of revenue, a place of bonds and contracts? Or is it a living organism, where bridges and architecture, community and memory are the contributors to something much larger than the whole. Bridges are such important place makers: they stand as icons of promise and hope, and tell us to what we aspire. While their chief role may be moving people and goods from one side of a body of water to another, they are potent symbols of a city’s identity. Just think of the world’s great cities that are defined by a single river or harbor crossing, such as New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate in San Francisco, or Tower Bridge in London.

 

Amid our current chaos, hand-wringing, and discussions of how safely and competently to replace the current Washington connector, the State must erect something handsomer than what it is replacing. This column has urged Providence to sponsor competitions, which would draw good publicity and potentially provide a spectacular design. But even if we don’t follow that route, Rhode Islanders ought to demand a significant structure that will enhance our image and contribute to the commonwealth. Great engineering and good design need not cost more than a mediocre solution. (Does anyone wonder why, after all the inconvenience, time, and expense, the new Henderson Bridge is so totally lacking in character?)

 

   

In the meantime, with ingenuity and imagination, we need to rise above politics-as-usual and collectively find ways to solve the traffic crisis with achievable solutions.