Oh, buoy

Only if the City gave in to the many, many, many of thousands who want this bridge opened backed up to the public.

Then the barge could have stayed on the harbor side of the bridge and not sank. Simple - see.

We all know that it is complete horseshit that this bridge was shut to pedestrians. It was closed supposedly for its condition, but really it was shut for "Security" reasons, meaning the GSA and FPS could park their nice big SUV's at the South Boston end of the bridge.

The bridge opened and shut just fine, well nearly all the time, until the day it was closed. If the bridge cannot support a few dozen pedestrians at one time, say 16,000 pounds of person weight spread out over the bridge at one time, then really it should have collapsed under its own weight, no? I'm not an engineer but it could take my 74 Dodge Monaco Land Barge filled with me and my buddies as late as 1988 then along with a lot of other traffic at once and two lanes stayed open even until at least 2001.

One of the best things that could have happened to streetscape Boston was the removal of the FBI to Chelsea. We were saved from another building with clean lines and plenty of anti-urban "open space" around it so machine gun fire could be exchanged easily. Ever wonder what those metal slots under the windows are for on the Congress Street side of the Federal Reserve building? They are not for easy ventilation.

This bridge closing is a legacy of Joe Moakley, who because it was his congressional district had the new bridge over the Channel named for his wife and he wanted the old bridge removed to make his now really ugly bridge (It looks like it was designed by the same person who designed early 90's HBO title cards) look better. 9/11 and the need for "Security" only made things worse.

Get the bridge open to people and make Boston's streetscape even better.