climbing to the top

I am freqeuently a critic of engineers and have been known to paraphrase Henry VI's line, "the first thing we do is kill all the lawyers, and the second, the engineers." Though my colleague suggests a more appropos solution would be to have the lawyers kill the engineers and then we kill the lawyers in turn. Enough mayhem.

Althoughly rarely charged, there is frequently enough evidence to indict engineers for one of the worst crimes against humanity, that of not paying attention to its needs. Or worst yet, removing wetlands and replacing them with constructed ones, destroying native rivers and then restoring them, and in general mucking things up here and there and being proud about the results. All of this wouldn't bother me so much if they weren't so proud about what mostly amounts to concrete. It's as if the thought process itself has become encased in the preferred medium of the profession.

Most bad engineering seems to result from trying to build things where they don't belong and not consulting people and/or architects in the process. Edifices can stand as a testament to the potential of the human spirit and condition or a monument to its folly. Too often the latter is the case. If you let nature be your guide, then it's hard to go wrong, and you'll find a lot of what's done didn't need to be done in the first place.

Bridges however can be, and often are an exception to the malaise that creeps into many engineered structures, likely because their symbolism is so obvious, even to the more literal thinkers of the day. The recently opened Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory is an example. Testing the waters with carbon fiber suspension cables and your fear of heights the new bridge offers stunning panoramas of Penobscot River and Bay, and the vistas surrounding Bucksport, Maine and provides another reason to head to the Pine Tree State.

Photo: Chris Becker for the New York Times.