I once had a mind-numbing government job with a desk window facing the Willamette River in downtown Portland. I used to watch tugboats wrestle loaded 200' gravel barges down-river under the Hawthorne Bridge and daydream about piloting something like that instead of shuffling papers for a living.
That fantasy blew away like a puff of smoke the day I watched a tug lose steering and bear down on a key bridge piling under one end of the lift span. Like a mile-long train, the whole mess took a full minute to stop, mere yards from impact before backing off to await another tug. Glad I didn't have to watch something like that with full-volume daytime auto and bicycle traffic in both directions.
RIP to those lost in this mishap.
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