Infrastructure Poem by gershon hepner

Infrastructure is what we
all take for granted something that
we think that we deserve for free
like fresh air or a feral cat.
What from experience we’ve learned
is infrastructure of our lives,
but like it may be overturned
if we don’t add to it. It thrives
from lessons that learn from new
experiences that repair
omissions, helping us review
the past, updating the software
that bridges all the highways of
our minds, their infrastructure that
we aren’t entitled to show-off
unless we updat their format
before the atrophy of parts
of the hardware without guarantee,
like bridges running off the charts,
and highways leading to the sea.


Glen Collins writes about bridges that many take for granted (“Birthday Honors for Some Bridges that Many Take for Granted, ” NYT, September 16,2008) :
“Our bridges get no respect, ” said M. Barry Schneider, founder of the New York City Bridge Centennial Commission, which has given itself the mission of celebrating the 100th anniversary of six city bridges from 2008 to 2010. Before this year the commission had little more than a logo (a jaunty suspension bridge in blue and gray) , but now has two centennial celebrations under its belt: the University Heights Bridge (January) and the Borden Avenue Bridge (March) . Next, on Oct.28, is the big bash for the Pelham Bay Bridge (it actually opened on Oct.15,1908, but borough presidents’ and commissioners’ schedules are tricky) . That will be followed by honors for the Queensboro Bridge (2009) , the Manhattan Bridge (also 2009) and the Madison Avenue Bridge (2010) . Such revelry has not been inspired by any official arm of the city government, but rather, by a nonprofit group that has won enthusiastic cooperation from the borough presidents’ offices, the mayor’s office, the city’s parks department and its Department of Transportation. All are participating in the hoopla. “I think it’s great that we’re having birthday parties for these six bridges, ” said Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, when asked about the commission. “The bones of the city are really strong — and we are celebrating that great bone structure.” Mr. Schneider created the commission with his wife, Judith, in October 2006. “I picked the name ‘commission’ so we could all be commissioners, ” he said with a laugh. His agenda, however, is entirely serious. “We take our infrastructure for granted, ” said the 73-year-old Mr. Schneider, a retired advertising executive who is a current member and former president of Community Board 8, and is president of the 650-member East Sixties Neighborhood Association in Manhattan. “And if we don’t take care, we’ll wind up with bridges that fall down.” The commission has given voice to a small but passionate band of bridge groupies, variously known as bridgies and bridgeaholics — largely engineers, architects, contractors and historians — who form the group’s membership. “Artistically, bridges are beautiful, they are incredibly mathematical and there is an elegance and lightness to them, ” said Samuel I. Schwartz, an independent civil-engineering consultant who is the bridge commission’s president. “From 1883 to 1910, there were 23 major bridges built in New York City — and we are a bridge mecca, ” said Mr. Schwartz, who was first deputy commissioner and chief engineer of the New York City Department of Transportation from 1986 to 1990.

9/16/08