Hey, there! Log in / Register

Virgil, quick come see, there goes the Robert E., no, wait, that's the Long Island bridge

By adamg on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 8:21am
Part of the Long Island bridge floats through Boston Harbor

Paul Nutting got to his office early this morning and got to see part of the Long Island bridge floating through Boston Harbor as crews work to take down the current span so it can be replaced one of these years.

Nick Cimetti got a closeup shot of the bridge segment under full steam:

Long Island bridge segment under way

Around 8:20 a.m., Suzanne McDaniel spotted the bridge segment docked on the Mystic River:

Long Island bridge segment at a dock
Neighborhoods: 
Downtown
Free tagging: 
Boston Harbor
Long Island


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

By adamg on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 9:12am.

We took a walk around Castle Island on Sunday; here's the bridge segment that's now on the Mystic:

Long Island bridge on Sunday

By Steve Stein on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 9:28am.

A quibble - the lyric is not "there goes the Robert E Lee" as if it were some conveyance. It's "there goes Robert E Lee", as in the General himself.

By adamg on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 10:48am.

Maybe in the Band version, but I'm a Joan Baez kinda guy, and she definitely sings the Robert E. Lee, as if it were a ship (I've always pictured some elegant paddle wheeler), which would make sense given the complaint that follows in the next lines:

And I don't care if the money's no good, just take what you need and leave the rest, but they should never have taken the very best.

By Steve Stein on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 10:59am.

Wikipedia footnote: "The Last Waltz of The Band Neil Minturn - 2005- Page 85 "be more familiar to some in Joan Baez's version. Hoskyns remarks of Baez's cover: "Two years later, Joan Baez recorded a terrible version of 'Dixie' that seemed to turn Robert E. Lee into a steamboat"

By johnmcboston on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 11:44am.

Seems JB was a victim of misheard lyrics as well. Form the Wikipedia entry: "Baez later told Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder that she initially learned the song by listening to the recording on the Band's album, and had never seen the printed lyrics at the time she recorded it, and thus sang the lyrics as she'd (mis)heard them. In more recent years in her concerts, Baez has performed the song as originally written by Robertson."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_They_Drove_Old_Dixie_Down

By Virgil Kane on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 12:26pm.

It doesn't really make sense. Why would someone say "quick, come see" some boat?

...but wait! Wikipedia says it was the name of a steamboat, and that's what the song refers to.
See the "In Popular Culture" section

Indeed, you can hear the "the" in the "Last Waltz" rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jREUrbGGrgM

Well, learn something new every day.

By adamg on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 12:35pm.

He's down on the south 40 choppin' wood (or mud, or whatever it is Baez sang), when his wife, up on the north 40 along the river, sees this paddle wheeler come steaming by and calls for him to hurry up and see it. And then he sees the name plate and gets all sad and stuff.

You know, sorta like some woman standing on Long Wharf sees the Long Island bridge (or a big chunk of it) go floating by and calls up her husband on speed dial to get him to rush down to see it :-).

By Sally on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 1:55pm.

I love this song--the Band version, not Joan--and have always heard it as "the Robert E. Lee" and assumed it referred to a steamboat or something. I don't think Lee was just meandering around post-war Tennessee. Here's what a random Google turned up. http://www.answers.com/Q/Was_Robert_E_Lee_in_Tennessee

By Dave on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 3:33pm.

Answers.com is about as good a reference as asking a random person coming out of a bar.

Here's a better article: http://theband.hiof.no/articles/dixie_viney.html

By Sally on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 4:50pm.

But common sense and your ears can confirm. Listen to the song--you can hear the "the" perfectly clearly in the Last Waltz live version. And why on earth would the defeated Robert E. Lee be rambling around some backwoods farm?

By Michael Kerpan on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 5:37pm.

... Lee sightings in unlikely places were sort of like "Elvis sightings". ;-}

By Dave on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 5:50pm.

In the original, there's no "the", though Helm sort of says "uh-Robert" if you listen closely. He seems to have added "the" in the Last Waltz but there was a lot of marching powder around by then. ;)

As for common sense, I don't envision it as Lee rambling around but more like his cavalcade passing by on the road. I wonder if there's an article where Robertson answers the question?

By rb on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 12:57pm.

To be hyper-specific, the inlet where the bridge is docked, presumably for dismantling, is known as the Island End River.

It will probably be ground up at the Everett scrapyard and then sent to China or Turkey to be melted down and sold back to us.

By anon on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 2:28pm.

Notice how Boston 2024's pretty artist rendering of Fort Port Channel dressed up for the Olympics features a restored Northern Avenue Bridge? (You, know, the one the city closed in December for lack of funds for repairs?) Boston 2024 maintains that every piece of infrastructure they need for the Olympics has already been approved for funding. Right.

By roadman on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 9:34am.

They Closed The Homeless Shelter Down

And all the displaced folks were screaming

By John-W on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 9:39am.

Take it to the Bridge! Take it to the Bridge! aw...fuckit, take the bridge to it....
Troubled Bridge Over Water? A Bridge Too Far...Gone? Bridge of Suffolk County?

I wonder if it's destined for the salvage yard on Nay Street just up the Chelsea Creek?

By cybah on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 9:47am.

so it can be replaced one of these years.

Just in time for the Olympics!

*eye roll*

By SteveM on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 10:07am.

Still don't see a need to replace it. How silly it was to even construct a bridge to Long Island in the first place. Use boats to access the island like all most other harbor islands and move the shelter and other island tenants elsewhere. It is not a sustainable location. It's a money pit.

By John Costello on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 11:25am.

The island was used as a chronic hospital and a military base for a long time. It was a Nike defensive missile base in the 50's, just in case the Ruskies came up President Roads. You needed quick access to the island and as this winter has shown, boats aren't always available. The thought process of using the island was very different than it is today. Times change. The bridge served nearly 60 years. Not a bad investment from a non-revenue generating piece of equipment.

As far as moving the shelter elsewhere, Please post your address in reply, we can contact city planners about opening the homeless shelter next to you since you are so willing to relocate it.

By anon on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 11:46am.

Have the Olympics at Long Island! Then it can be a year round recreational / training facility for the masses to enjoy - no displacement , no immense by domain, the island gets spruced up bridge gets replaced and the event can be controlled ... Then people can come back to enjoy the city amenities as well as in surrounding areas on new the the areas newly updated public transportation including awesome new ferry service. Wow ! Problem solved !

By kitty on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 9:06pm.

Makes sense. Many of us seemed to think the displacement of the homeless, social service agencies were done to make way for other purposes

By Suldog on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 8:15am.

The Olympic plans being bandied about do have a provision for using Long Island as an Olympic base. It will be for shooting contests. The bridge would be restricted to Olympic use only during the Olympics.

Boston Herald, 2/19

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

By Lmo on Thu, 02/26/2015 - 3:12am.

Find out what Koch and his constituents think about that and get back to us.

By SteveM on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 12:52pm.

It's already been relocated to Southampton St, the old BTD Operations Center. It would cost much less to make that permanent than build a new bridge to serve a few buildings on an island. There's even more room there to expand if they want to.

By Ann Weatherbee on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 2:45pm.

Thanks John,
Your comment is right on.

By Laura82 on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 10:12am.

Well, now that song will be in my head all day.

By jay on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 10:32am.

to Nowhere

By Suldog on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 10:59am.

I bid one club (full of Olympics backers, in plush leather chairs, sipping on cognac and congratulating themselves on the ongoing progress.)

Suldog (who knows U-Hub commenters can keep the bidding going)
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

By anon on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 1:50pm.

Having a casino on the island would have paid for the bridge. This would have been ideal with ferry service to the casino on the island. The biggest mistake was putting that stupid camp on the island with those programs from mental illness, sex offenders, etc for those so-called at risk kids. The camp only serves a few hundred kids for a couple of weeks instead of having a summer program in the community that help kids stay busy for the entire summer. A couple of weeks are not going to keep these kids out of trouble.