Digital Bulletin

05:55 PM EDT on Tuesday, April 18, 2006

By KATE BRAMSON
projo.com staff writer

NARRAGANSETT -- Esther Eberly of South Kingstown had a front row seat for the explosion today.

She got there early and staked out a spot for her beach chair.

She recalled being afraid as a youngster while traveling over the Jamestown Bridge to visit relatives on the island community in the middle of Narraganset Bay. Driving over the grates at the top of the bridge made a loud noise.

Journal photo / Kris Craig

This crowd gathered at the University of Rhode Island's Bay campus in Narragansett, one of the few public spots to see the bridge come falling down. Spectators faced east for the view.

"But we still stuck out heads out the window so you could see the water" under the bridge, she said.

She was among hundreds who showed up during public school vacation for the show, from the vantage point of University of Rhode Island's Bay campus.

Some were here with solid memories of the old bridge, some brought their children and their friends – many of them boys who wanted to see a good explosion.

Others were URI students from out of state who had no childhood memories of this bridge, but wanted to join others for what would be a memorable day.

Seven-year-old Jimmy Burke was here because he likes explosives, a friend answered for him. As for Jimmy, goofing around while sitting on someone’s shoulders, he just said he wanted to see the “bridge blow up.”

Denise Achin of North Attleboro, Mass., had traveled over the old bridge, but didn’t grow up knowing the bridge as other spectators did. She brought her son and two of his friends, “so the boys could see the explosion.”

In the end, people seemed impressed – and satisfied that the day had given them what they were looking for.

“It was kind of awesome,” Donna Botieri of West Greenwich said. “It was exciting. It went fairly quickly.”

She, too, had traveled to the Bay campus with sons and a friend of theirs who were on school vacation.

"It was pretty cool,” Eberly said. “It looked like at night, a bridge lit up, and I was surprised how long it took for the sound to travel.”

Maybe a couple of seconds, she and I agreed, but we weren’t sure.

What I do know is that the explosion rumbled in my chest, as drums do when you listen to a marching band. But we didn't feel any movement on the ground, Eberly noted.

Brian Fanion, an engineer who was packing up his telescope and digital camera a few minutes after the explosion, hoped to get home and remove some of the plume of smoke from his digital photos and get a crisper image of the actual explosion. But he planned to take a quick peek at what he had in the car before he even left campus.

On the beach after the short but memorable explosion, Mark Lasorsa of Coventry said, “It was pretty cool because it just collapsed.”

URI junior Lauren Abrams, from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who said beforehand that she was here for the explosion, actually missed it.

“Because I was taping the crowd,” she explained, carrying a video camera. Although most people just seemed to stare ahead, focusing on the blast, Abrams said she caught one little girl on tape jumping up in the air.

So it seems to me, after talking with lots of people, that the draw for today’s event was a mixture of childhood nostalgia, a young child’s interest in a cool explosion and the desire to be a part of something that people in Rhode Island will talk about for a long time to come.

Since I’m not on school vacation, I consider myself lucky to work at a job where I get to experience these slices of life.

P.S. I can't leave Eberly behind without thanking her for faithfully watching my computer and a colleague's camera while we roamed the beach, talking to the crowd.