The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at 50

Dear Diary:

urban explorers
planning and seeking
an alternate route
not to the indies
but between the forts
from wadsworth
to hamilton

towering towers become
tall sentinels rising
erect in the narrows
silently awaiting
catwalking riggers
to brace and to truss
the steel-ribbed junctures
suspension cabling
cradling the framework
of the double-decked roadways
binding everything up
with black asphalt ribbon

months become years
and red primer
a battleship gray topcoat
ramped rights of way
cross-cut like a buzz saw
from the belt through the streets
houses down
tollbooths born

a wagnerian christening
in november of ’64
with black asphalt glistening
and traffic parading
crossing the narrows
via the alternate route
sweet brainchild of moses
and the blueprints of ammann

later that november evening
red towerlights winked
at the last of the greenferries
sailing out through the narrows
outward bound for st. george

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