#bridges – @bunnyinatree on Tumblr

bunnyinatree reblogged

snappysprinkledog

liesmyth

muoio malissimo

mostvaliantandmostpround

What a funny story...

liesmyth

postmodernmulticoloredcloak

okay context for the non-italians. long story short: it's pretty much impossible from an engineering perspective. there are very strong and swirly currents that make it not feasible to just build a bridge where the coasts are the closest - it would have to be built in a spot where the distance between the coasts is wider, a little too much for a bridge possibly, but also, like, outside of the cities, which means it would still be quicker for people to step on the ferry than drive all the way to the bridge. the ferry is quick, cheap, also they've introduced sustainable non-polluting boats, so, literally no one in either sicily or calabria wants a useless bridge, even if it could be built safely.

on top of that... it's a seismic area. you really don't want to make engineering experiments there.

governments have tried to figure out a way to build that bridge at least from the 60s, afaik, but engineers have just come to the conclusion that nope.

also: people in sicily and calabria have reason to believe that if a project like that gets given the green light, it will end up fattening the pockets of corrupted politicians and mafia groups.

pretty straightforward right? yeah... NOPE!

the italian right has been waving the proposal of building that bridge for decades. every once in a while, when you think you're free, BAM the right-wing politician genius of the moment comes up with the law proposal to build the bridge. it used to be berlusconi, now berlusconi is dead, recently it's been salvini. they propose to build the bridge, the left says "what the fuck", and the right goes see!! the left doesn't want progress and development for the country!! they want the country to languish and die!!

(in the meanwhile taxpayers' euros go into paying commissions that need to figure out how to build the bridge, ignoring that there's been a billion commissions over almost a century that have all come to the conclusion that nope.)

(also remember what i said about corrupted politicians and mafia groups? well try to guess the reason it's the right-wing parties that keep insisting on building this fucking bridge.)

it's become a total national joke. mention the bridge on the strait to an italian, they'll laugh as they go through the 5 stages of italian political grief.

heyguysiwrotesomething

#sicily #italy #undescribed #bridges

bunnyinatree reblogged

sharpedobluffs

expressions-of-nature

by Jenessa Anderson

#mountains #snow #forests #scenery #jenessa anderson #rivers #bridges #undescribed

bunnyinatree reblogged

fumagus

i-am-aprl

Palestinian activists get their message across on Londons iconic Tower Bridge landmark- one of the cities most historic buildings. We need a ceasefire now.

#israel #london #bridges #undescribed

bunnyinatree reblogged

galacticneighbor

ralfmaximus

There is some pretty shocking footage out there of the Baltimore bridge collapse early this morning. I've already seen some incredibly wrong, incredibly insensitive Hot Takes about how shitty the bridge was to have fallen after being bonked by a boat, etc

Please don't be that person.

The facts will come out. Speculation is silly. In addition to loss of life, the Francis Scott Key bridge was a major arterial in that region's highway system. Its loss will be felt for years, and not just to daily commuters.

Baltimore harbor is closed. No shipping at all. This will impact supply chains in ways we cannot even assess yet.

It's pretty fucked up.

illisidifan

Hey y'all, Baltimorian here.

This is a huge fucking deal and if we can't get the harbor clear and operational and shipping contracts move to another city, they will never come back.
That was an arch suspension bridge. What happens when you knock down one strut of an arch? You know, an arch, the engineering principal that relies on distributing force across a specific shape?
That boat was 95 fucking tons.
The boat put in a mayday call to the port, allowing them to shut down traffic on the bridge SAVING TONS OF PEOPLE.
The construction workers are the ones we still can't locate and everyone here is furiously working to save them STILL so it's fucked up beyond belief when everyone from outside is wanting to talk about everything else first and I have hella respect for our mayor and governor for just laying that out when asked.
There are legit critiques you can make about what kinds of engineering could have been done to shore up against this, like more dolphins (special piers that act like traffic poles to keep boats well away from the supporting struts of the bridge) or maybe bumpers, but unless your ass has an engineering degree and can show me your work on how you would keep a 95 ton object traveling at 9 fucking knots and knocking into one leg of an arch suspension bridge from destroying said bridge, you need to sit the fuck down.
If you're worried about people here, there's not much you can do at the moment but you can sure as hell lobby your senators and congresspeople to support Biden sending money to Baltimore to fix this. This is a huge problem and we just do not have the money to fix it. It took from 1972 to 1977 to build the Key bridge and will take that long or longer to replace it. I'm sure there will be lots of talk about corruption and other bullshit but what I've seen so far is the people of Baltimore showing up and showing out for our own, lining up food trucks for first responders, church groups going with potluck food, local boats and helicopters helping in the search (which again is still active).

slipstreamborne

Minor correction, the boat was 95 THOUSAND tons.

I think some people aren't getting the full scope of the ship's size. It's almost a thousand feet long. I can't imagine a structure getting hit by something that big and that heavy with any amount of speed without sustaining some sort of catastrophic damage.

#baltimore #bridges #current events