What are under Troubled Bridges

Last Updated (Monday, 23 June 2008 14:14) Written by Raymond Nakamura

The fiftieth anniversary of the collapse of the bridge now (as of 1994) known as the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing got me thinking about Disney musicals.
I mean no disrespect. Here's what happened.

I read about how the two engineers responsible for the design of the bridge, made a fatal miscalculation resulting in a total of 23 deaths, including their own.
Such an awesome responsibility. I mean, when I make a mistake in this blog, nobody even comments...

I'd heard that Canadian engineers wear an iron ring to remind them of a collapsed bridge and their responsibility to public safety. So I asked some engineers about theirs. They receive the ring through a secret ceremony, so I won't use their full names, in case they told me more then they were supposed to...

Mike told me the rings being made from bits of a collapsed bridge is a myth and that they are steel, not iron. Paul stopped wearing his because it scratched the dishes he washed, but said, "When I hear any stories about bridges collapsing or such it still strikes a cord.  It is central to the Iron Ring and the obligation of an engineer." The Iron Ring was first developed for Canadian engineers, although some American engineers also receive a ring, of a slightly different design. According to Bruce, who received one even though he entered engineering through physics, "It's normally worn on the little finger of your working hand, so Sherlock Holmes might have seen one and said, 'I see you are a left-handed Canadian engineer!''

An engineering professor at the University of Toronto seeking a way to unify engineering contacted Rudyard Kipling, who had written some poems related to engineering. His being a Freemason probably influenced him in creating a secretive medieval kind of ceremony called "The RItual of the Calling of an Engineer." The Corporation of the Seven Wardens Inc. originally consisting of seven past-presidents of the Engineering Institute of Canada first administered it in 1922.

Rudyard Kipling is perhaps best known (at least to me) for Jungle Book. I'm not even sure I've actually seen all of the Disney version of that story, released over forty years ago, but now I have "The Bare Necessities" playing through my head. I'll have to see if it's in the new show.

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