The Rachel Carson Bridge

If the description of this Bridge sounds similar to the description of the Roberto Clemente Bridge in terms of possibly being written by the same writer, then it is only appropriate for the Bridge itself looks very similar to the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

They are siblings, after all.

Not Rachel Carson and Roberto Clemente, the people.

But Rachel Carson and Roberto Clemente, the bridges.

The Rachel Carson Bridge and the Roberto Clemente are part of the “Three Sisters,” the almost identical trio of bridges that cross the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh. The third is the Andy Warhol Bridge, which sits between them. You will have to read on to see if that bridge makes this Mount Rushmore (who[are the many people that]ever said visiting Mount Rushmores wasn’t exciting?).

The petite Carson stands not shoulder to shoulder with Clemente in physical stature but did share his reluctance of the spotlight and was spurred there not by a desire for fame she never sought but rather by an inherent urge to make the world a better place. Which she did in mountainous ways. And so Carson’s legacy stands shoulder to shoulder with Clemente’s.

Rachel Carson shares not only the initials, RC, with Roberto Clemente, but also his propensity for shaping history through the platform of the City of Bridges, Pittsburgh.

Carson is a giant historical figure. Best known for Silent Spring that jump-started the 20th century environmentalist movement, Carson brought the dangers of the pesticide DDT into mainstream consciousness and helped society begin to re-evaluate its relationship with technology and nature. She brought the issue of pollution to the forefront.

Her work is often mischaracterized though; she was not a staunch anti-pesticides crusader. Rather, she advocated for essentially pumping the brakes on new chemicals and taking a slow approach to such scientific advancements until the ramifications could be better studied and understood. Essentially, she was advocating–-or even simply cautioning–-against the predominant thinking of the time that humans (or “men,” because of the prevailing misogyny of the time) could conquer nature. But Carson was right, not only for unfortunate reasons like DDT being linked to cancer, but also because nature finds a way; life finds a way (Goldblum, Jeff).

Talent like Carson’s also finds a way. Carson’s ability was so good that her rise to prominence was inevitable. She got her “break” by writing an introduction to a brochure for the Bureau of Fisheries that her boss deemed too good for such a dry publication and suggested submitting it to The Atlantic.

Let’s pause there for a moment, because in a way this embodies Carson. She wrote something too beautiful, too wonderful for a dull government publication that she was pushed and encouraged to submit it elsewhere, just like she would be further pushed into the spotlight by the quality and controversy surrounding her later work.

In that way, Carson really acted as a bridge providing scientific substance to the masses. She wrote about subjects that had been largely reserved for government and academic publications for the larger population in a way that should be emulated more often so more people can be included in intellectual discourse. #HammockReviews

While Silent Spring may be her most impactful work, she has other writing we prefer. Because of the need to make a careful argument, Silent Spring becomes a wonderful piece of journalism, presenting a case with many pieces of evidence in almost a legal or prosecutorial manner. Carson does so with a steady hand that sometimes includes insightful philosophical ideas, but is simply not the platform for the beauty and joy displayed in her earlier work.

And no, we are not referring to government pamphlets.

We are referring to her first three books, which were deservedly popular at the time as they represent wonderful literary nonfiction, but have not been remembered as often as they should as time has moved us further and further away from them. Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us, and The Edge of the Sea form a trilogy of oceanic masterpieces. The stylized prose presents moments of peaceful sea narratives that are still uniquely elite in the literary world. Anyone who loves the ocean and reading should love these books. There is a sense of feeling free, gleefully experiencing nature, joyously painting focused portraits of it, unrestrained by the need for proving a point or making a case, but rather presenting what is before her–-nature–-and letting it make a case for itself. While Silent Spring was very necessary and more impactful historically, this sea trilogy is more peaceful, more literary, and simply more enjoyable. They are examples of the world’s wonderful magic when we peak behind the curtains of the necessary.

So much do we like the oceans and the beautiful (albeit sometimes in a strange way) creatures that inhabit it, that Allied Whale is on our Charity Palette.

Looking at Carson’s palette of work and the overall composition she painted reveals to us the optimistic beauty and power of nature, somehow misconceived or underestimated by humans, perhaps like Carson herself who was consistently underestimated by contemporaries. Her overall message could, perhaps, be summed up with the simply phrase “Sweet Livin’,” even if she unfortunately never wrote down those exact words*.

Carson’s work did much to deter the world from the nasty hazards of DDT and other ill-begotten environmental blemishers stemming from the hands of humans with the self-destroying cancer-causing chemicals; Carson’s work built a bridge from that undesirable fate to a world of more wonderful possibilities by spreading poetry, by spreading sweetness, by crossing whatever obstacles may be in place, with a bridge to a new kind of positive, healthy pollution: that of Sweet Livin’.

Without the Rachel Carson Bridge, you may already be dead from DDT poisoning. In other words, this is not only a a Great Bridge that takes people from downtown to the North Shore in their car in case the above Roberto Clemente Bridge has been closed off from automobiles for a Pirates or Steelers game, the Rachel Carson Bridge is also a Great Bridge to great health and the ability to visit your grandchildren at their birthday party, not your gravesite.

Oh so much more could be said about Carson, but Mount Rushmores are limited by space (sort of). So she gets her writing accepted by The Atlantic and the next thing you know, a few decades pass, and she has one of the best Bridges in Pittsburgh named after her.

And then a few more decades pass and she gets a coveted spot on The Mount Rushmore of Pittsburgh Bridges.

And that is the process by which a shy person who never wanted fame, never desired for a beautiful Bridge to be named after her, never campaigned Sweet Livin’ Productions for a spot–vicariously through her Bridge–-on one of our most prestigious Mount Rushmores, gets there anyway, via her Bridge.

If that is not the American Dream come true then America needs better dreams.

But this is not yet the last bridge on the elite–-but not exclusive because all are welcome–-Mount Rushmore of Pittsburgh Bridges.

For it is the very nature of bridges that one bridge would lead on to the next bridge. It is poetry (citation: Frost, Robert). Like Frost wrote, “knowing how way leads on to way”--but unlike Frost you can always come back here to this Mount Rushmore and visit it every day of your life if you print it out and frame it all over your walls or simply use it as wallpaper or, more simply yet, bookmark it on your web browser or make it your homepage either on your work computer so your boss knows you’re serious and diligent or your home computer so your spouse knows you’re responsible and your marriage is a bridge to somewhere good.

Frost–-a writer like Carson whose works are ever-embedded in nature—-lived in New England and thus did not really understand the nature of Pittsburgh Bridges where you may have to come back, if you crossed one of the bridges on accident, which is very possible—even with the aid of a GPS—because of Pittsburgh’s famously confusing roads. So confusing that local injury and accident lawyers actually use them in their promotions. #BridgesToProsperity

So of course the Rachel Carson Bridge could lead you directly to the next Bridge on the Mount Rushmore of Pittsburgh Bridges, or it could take you to a pit stop where you Adopt-a-Whale through Allied Whale, which is very much in the spirit of Rachel Carson who loved Maine, where many of her writings take place and where Allied Whale is based.

Or perhaps you could take a beautiful Bridge to buying some Sweet Livin’ Merch.

Whether or not you stop either of those places, that is okay, for this is also a Bridge to our next Bridge.

Sometimes bridges take the form of website buttons.

*in published form; maybe she wrote them on a piece of paper that she later recycled to save the tree whose foliage now blocks your skin from receiving skin-cancer causing sun rays; an unlikely story, we know, but so too is her rise to global impact.