The New York Times article on the "bridge musician" struck a responsive chord in me. Not only did it highlight the fact that engineering and the arts are often closely entwined—maybe that's why I've used purple bridge rebar in theatrical productions in my time—but that bridge looked awfully familiar.

Oh yeah, the Mid-Hudson Bridge! Wasn't I crawling up the suspension cable of that very 1,500-ft-long span about 4 years ago, white-knuckled and cold-sweating? Isn't that the same Bill Moreau, chief engineer of the New York State Bridge Authority, who blithely thrust climbing gear into my shocked arms and said, “Well, let's go!” That sweeping view looking down from the top of the bridge, seen in the New York Times video, is what I saw, trembling and sweaty, once I'd finally made it up.

Moreau appears in the video. It's quite appropriate that it was he who cooperated with the musician, because Moreau struck me, when I spent that day with him, as an open-minded, creative engineer who encouraged innovation. It was he who worked with Khaled Mahmoud, now president of Bridge Technology Consulting, New York City, and allowed him to take cable strands from that bridge to work on his own corrosion theory. Moreau didn't hesitate to try new products that might (or might not) prove to be better, stronger, more long-lasting in contributing to bridge maintenance.

I don't know if this bridge musician, who has been there banging, knocking and recording the sounds from the bridge, ever climbed up the cable. But that's okay, I used to take piano lessons (not voluntarily) and the most I could ever compose was lame variations on Pachelbel's Canon in D (i.e., Canon in C).

If he does do a concert on the bridge (literally) in 2009, I might have to go. Say hi to Moreau, and maybe climb up the bridge cable again. I bet I could do it a little faster this time.

July 6, 2007

I think you can do better than this last article. With all the infrastructure issues available for you to cover just within the New York City area, I believe you can focus yourself on more worthy issues and topics.

Warren Brown
Techstar Inc.
Findlay, Ohio