We have a nice new bridge. Now let's do something good with it.
After all the waiting and the talking and the speculation, that new bridge should be put to even better use to enhance the community and the neighborhood around it.
I like the bridge as it stands.
It isn't the Zakim with its fancy tower and cables. It isn't even comparable to the Basiliere, with its towers and obelisks at the other end of downtown.
But the Comeau is attractive in its own right.
We have a good start on making it something significant and different.
The lights, for instance, are different from we have been accustomed to. After pleading with the state designers, the city got lights that were as close as the state could come, we assume, to the patterns of lights on Washington Street in the historic district.
So, now is the time to start thinking about what can be done to make this new bridge as distinctive as possible, so it becomes a symbol of Haverhill (and Bradford, of course) and not just another bridge over the Merrimack River.
One bridge that immediately comes to mind is one that has become famous in Turners Falls, in the western part of the state, where the people have lined one of their bridges on a well-traveled route with flowers - many, many flowers.
I am not suggesting, necessarily, that the people from the local Brightside organization under the direction and urging of Elaine Barker do anything like the flower power on the Turners Falls bridge, but there must be some artistic or creative minds out there who can do things with the Comeau Bridge to take it out of its almost ordinary status.
It looks good today, and there should be every effort to make it look good for years to come. This is something we can preserve, and not have to return to in 15 or 20 years and try to restore. If we make the status quo a community goal, we will have what we want in the upkeep of this new community asset.
I still think not enough was done to welcome this new bridge to the city. There should have been some bigger ceremony or program in which many factions of the city could cooperate, whether it was a march from one end and back, or a hands-holding thing the length of the bridge to signify the common bond between the Haverhill and Bradford sides.
We don't very often get something to celebrate and decorate or work on, and this should be an opportunity for the city to help us feel good about ourselves.
After all the waiting and the talking and the speculation, that new bridge should be put to even better use to enhance the community and the neighborhood around it.
I like the bridge as it stands.
It isn't the Zakim with its fancy tower and cables. It isn't even comparable to the Basiliere, with its towers and obelisks at the other end of downtown.
But the Comeau is attractive in its own right.
We have a good start on making it something significant and different.
The lights, for instance, are different from we have been accustomed to. After pleading with the state designers, the city got lights that were as close as the state could come, we assume, to the patterns of lights on Washington Street in the historic district.
So, now is the time to start thinking about what can be done to make this new bridge as distinctive as possible, so it becomes a symbol of Haverhill (and Bradford, of course) and not just another bridge over the Merrimack River.
One bridge that immediately comes to mind is one that has become famous in Turners Falls, in the western part of the state, where the people have lined one of their bridges on a well-traveled route with flowers - many, many flowers.
I am not suggesting, necessarily, that the people from the local Brightside organization under the direction and urging of Elaine Barker do anything like the flower power on the Turners Falls bridge, but there must be some artistic or creative minds out there who can do things with the Comeau Bridge to take it out of its almost ordinary status.
It looks good today, and there should be every effort to make it look good for years to come. This is something we can preserve, and not have to return to in 15 or 20 years and try to restore. If we make the status quo a community goal, we will have what we want in the upkeep of this new community asset.
I still think not enough was done to welcome this new bridge to the city. There should have been some bigger ceremony or program in which many factions of the city could cooperate, whether it was a march from one end and back, or a hands-holding thing the length of the bridge to signify the common bond between the Haverhill and Bradford sides.
We don't very often get something to celebrate and decorate or work on, and this should be an opportunity for the city to help us feel good about ourselves.
The Washington Street Historic Shoe District has become a distinctive part of Haverhill, and the bridge is, or should be, an extension of existing conditions, enhancing what is already there, and thriving, not just an accessory that is hanging on one end of the district.
On a different note, there appears to be a chance that the adjacent bridge, which carries the railroad tracks across the river, is going to need some extensive work. That bridge, like the former Comeau/County Bridge, is strictly utilitarian. It is a plain bridge, nothing fancy, but it has done good work for many years. Let's just hope nothing happens to it. It will most certainly be repaired and rebuilt, or train service to a large part of New England will be gone, at great loss to the region.
So let us celebrate and decorate when it comes to the Comeau Bridge, and make it something about which the city can brag, instead of just another routine, ordinary, part of the city. This is an opportunity we don't get very often.
Barney Gallagher has covered Haverhill since 1936 as a reporter, editor and columnist.
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