The Northern Avenue Bridge in the Seaport District of Boston is an enormous steel structure, now brown and rusting from neglect. It is city-owned, but has been closed to vehicles for two decades and blocked off to pedestrians since 2014.

In October, the Coast Guard warned that the bridge could collapse into Fort Point Channel if it’s left in its current state. And in January, the city of Boston said it would spend up to $100 million either restoring or replacing the bridge.

Since then, advocates have come out on both sides of the debate: some want to build a new bridge and others want to restore the four-trussed, swinging bridge — the last of its kind in America.

We went to see the bridge and met up with Dan McNichol, an independent author and advocate for rebuilding America’s infrastructure. He doesn’t want to lose the character of the bridge and has been calling for a restoration rather than a demolition.

Read the full article here:

https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2016/03/15/northern-avenue-bridge

(excerpted from WBUR.org website)