the atmosphere on the bridge

Jeff Wilson · 17 May 2011, 09:20 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 04:20:27 -0500
Subject: (urth) the atmosphere on the bridge
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTin_uEJLQSqKGDWXLQTBxhkc6eFZOA at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BANLkTin_uEJLQSqKGDWXLQTBxhkc6eFZOA at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4DD23DDB.8090302 at io.com>

On 5/17/2011 2:40 AM, Jason H wrote:
> I'm confused about the atmosphere on the bridge that Severian crosses at
> the very beginning of his exile (Shadow chapter XIV).
>
> Previously he had been walking on the Water Way, and I get the
> impression there are few people about. He says he no longer appeared a
> torturer "in the eyes of the few who passed me"; also, he was able to
> hear the song from a ship, carried by the wind, from a league away.
>
> But when he steps on the bridge, the scene is suddenly crowded: there
> are carriages, there are vendors crying out, and people "thronging" the
> walkway. When he stops to talk to the guard, he is suddenly surrounded
> by a hundred people. All of this in the dead of the night.
>
> Does this make sense? Why would the bridge be so crowded, but the
> walkway on one side of the river be practically deserted? Aren't the
> throngs of people *crossing* the bridge?

Bridges are very often bottlenecks for traffic; there are generally at 
least three lanes of various sizes leading away from a bridge footing in 
a city, but the bridge is generally only as wide as it has to be due to 
the expense of construction and maintenance, and as a defensive measure. 
The spacing between bridges also factors in, there are many choices  to 
cross between streets on dry land but only so many bridges between the 
river banks.  Consider the important of the bridge at the end of SAVING 
PRIVATE RYAN.

OF course, big cities like Nessus of have luxuriously broad numerous 
bridges, not unlike the various bridges across the Thames in London, but 
in times of asuterity, decadence, and/or corruption, these inevitably 
become considered additional real estate and become covered with 
stationary concerns until again there is a bottleneck only as wide as it 
has to be. The relatively uncluttered bridges across the Seine in Paris 
are a rare sign of enlightened self-interest on the part of the city 
government.

Or that's my impression, I'm not a civil engineer or anything.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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