Livingston’s Bridge is Falling Down

Big excitement here in a small town — the bridge to the 9th street Island is collapsing. It’s not a surprise — the surprise is that it hasn’t fallen down before now. The river has been high since just after Mother’s Day, and it really went up these last few days of warm weather. It was Thursday afternoon that the sag became noticeable, and they evacuated some folks, then closed the bridge entirely. Yesterday they took off anyone who wanted to go in a helicopter, and the DOT has arrived with a Bailey Bridge they’re planning to put in, but that will take a week or so. So yesterday afternoon and evening we all hung out, watching the bridge. It wasn’t very dramatic, but it was fun in that way that non-disastrous catastrophes can be — you’d run into people you hadn’t seen in a while, chat, watch the bridge, watch the guys with the big equipment, dogs would run around, little kids chased one another. And even the folks on the other side, they’re inconvenienced, but it’s not a disaster — their houses are okay, the island isn’t flooding, and the folks who decided to stay are watching out for everyone else’s animals and report that they’re actually enjoying the peace and quiet.