Zakim Bridge

Despite the construction debacle Boston’s “Big Dig” has become, the project does have one soaring success story: the stunning double-wishbone towers of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. Raised in 2002 to connect Boston [1] to Charlestown [2], Zakim Bridge provides a beautiful backdrop to the North End [3], and serves as a bona fide engineering marvel as well.

Building it in a tangle of highways that was notoriously difficult to bridge, engineers solved the conundrum by running eight lanes between the center of the wishbones, and cantilevering an extra two lanes on one side. The resulting asymmetrical design makes Zakim Bridge the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and has quickly formed a stirring of attachment and pride akin to what San Franciscans feel for the Golden Gate.

Its asymmetrical mouthful of a name, however, is a result of classic Boston infighting. Liberal Bostonians wanted to name the bridge after Jewish civil rights activist Lenny Zakim, while working-class conservatives from Charlestown felt strongly about honoring the nearby site of the Battle of Bunker Hill [4].

In the end, lawmakers split the difference by combining the two monikers with the result that, depending on which side of the bridge you are standing on, you may hear it called by a different name. So much for bridging over divides!