Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Bridges over troubled waters (4:50 edit)

(FX: underwater breathing)
Donohue: ?One-six-five.?
Neumann: ?Divin? in the shallows today.?

THAT BREATHING YOU HEAR IS KIRK NEUMANN. HE?S ALONE IN THE DARK, A HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE FEET UNDERWATER IN THE TACOMA NARROWS.

Donohue : ?Looks like it should be, no tangled wires or anything??
Neumann: ?Negative. That looks good, I?m going down, slack down line, slack diver.?

NEUMAN IS HELPING INSTALL THE UNDERWATER FOUNDATIONS FOR THE NEW TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE. IT?S BEING BUILT JUST 60 YARDS AWAY FROM THE EXISTING BRIDGE ACROSS PUGET SOUND.

AN UMBILICAL CORD BRINGS AIR INTO HIS DIVING HELMET AND A SHOWER OF HOT WATER INTO HIS WETSUIT. A VIDEO FEED CONNECTS HIM TO THE SURFACE AND TO HIS COWORKER FROM ASSOCIATED UNDERWATER SERVICES, KERRY DONOHUE.

Donohue: [?You?re always under the gun]. You have to accomplish 8 hours of work in about an hour to get through the tides. If you're trying to put a large piece of steel in underwater, current will grab it and sail it around like a kite.?

A DIVER WHO STAYS DOWN TOO LONG MIGHT GET SWEPT AWAY, TANGLED IN A MAZE OF CABLES, OR SHOT TO THE SURFACE FAST ENOUGH TO GET THE BENDS. IF HE COULD STAY IN PLACE, HE?D BE POUNDED BY THE BASKETBALL-SIZED BOULDERS THAT BOUNCE ALONG THE SEAFLOOR.

THE NEW BRIDGE TOWERS STARTED OUT AS FLOATING CONCRETE BOXES, OR CAISSONS, EACH ABOUT THE SIZE OF A SEVEN-STORY BUILDING. AS LAYER AFTER LAYER OF CONCRETE WAS ADDED TO THEIR TOPS, THE CAISSONS SANK BIT BY BIT. THESE FLOATING, UNDERWATER SKYSCRAPERS GREW SLOWLY DOWNWARD FOR MONTHS, UNTIL THEY HIT THE BOTTOM OF THE SOUND.

TO SECURE THE FLOATING TOWERS AGAINST CURRENTS PUSHING IN EVERY DIRECTION, CONSTRUCTION TEAMS JACKHAMMERED 64 ENORMOUS ANCHORS INTO THE SEA FLOOR.

Neumann: ?I?m on the bottom.?
Donohue: ?Roger.?

KERRY DONOHUE TELLS OF A CLOSE CALL WHEN A DIVER WAS SLOWLY CLIMBING A GIANT ANCHOR CHAIN ON HIS WAY TO THE SURFACE, LIKE JACK IN THE BEANSTALK. THE CURRENT GREW SO STRONG THAT HE COULDN?T LET GO OF THE SUPERSIZE CHAIN LINKS.

Donohue: ?He basically had his arms locked through the links and his feet around the bottom of the links in what was named after that the koala death grip. We had to pull the chain and the diver out of the water and swung the crane over and put the diver on the deck of the dive barge to get him into the decompression chamber, or we wouldn?t have gotten him back.?

DESPITE THE HAZARDS, DONOHUE IS GRATEFUL TO HAVE WORKED SOME PLACE FEW HUMANS HAVE EVER SEEN. HIS ?OFFICEMATES? INCLUDED GIANT OCTOPUS UP TO 14 FEET ACROSS.

Donohue: ?A huge octopus. Some people see those things in the wild maybe once in their life, we saw them pretty much every day for two years.?

EARL WHITE IS THANKFUL TO BE ALIVE AFTER HIS JOB HIGH ABOVE THE NARROWS.

(music)

THE 85-YEAR-OLD IRONWORKER HELPED BUILD THE SECOND TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE, STARTING IN 1948. HE PROUDLY RECALLS HIS DAREDEVIL NIGHTS ON THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT, HUNDREDS OF FEET OVER THE SWIRLING WATERS.

White: ?I?ve put my share in on lots of rough jobs, but this one out here, it topped ?em all.
One slip and you were gone. We lost 2 men putting in the roadbed alone.?

(music [Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra])

THE IRONWORKERS CLIMBED CHAIN-LINK CATWALKS TO THE TOP OF THE 500-FOOT TOWERS. IN GALE-FORCE WINDS AND BLIZZARDS, THEY BALANCED ON SIX-INCH-WIDE STEEL BEAMS. THEY DIDN?T WEAR SAFETY HARNESSES.

EARL WHITE LOST A GOOD FRIEND, WHITEY DAVIS.

White: ?Like I say, we weren?t twenty feet apart when he stepped down from the top flange of the deck beam, why he missed it and he went all the way. It sounded like an artillery piece had gone off, that?s how hard he hit the water. That current is so fast, they never did find the bodies of the ironworkers.?

(music - Will the one I love be coming back to me.)

White: ?Sometimes you?d walk up that cable, it was so foggy, you couldn?t see hand in front of your face, maybe you got up, 500-foot level, all of a sudden, we could see the tops of 4 mountains poking up through that overcast, it just made you think you were about as close to heaven as you?d ever get.?

(music - ... starlit sky above.)

White: ?I can?t go across it yet today without a lot of pride in the project we completed.?

THAT PROJECT IS NOW AMERICA?S FIFTH-LONGEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE.

RIGHT NEXT DOOR, CONSTRUCTION CREWS HAVE FINISHED THE NEW TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE WITH NO CASUALTIES AND ONLY THREE INJURIES SERIOUS ENOUGH TO KEEP WORKERS OFF THE JOB THE NEXT DAY.

IN THE TACOMA NARROWS, I?M JOHN RYAN.

(music - I cover the waterfront.)

Back