war photographer Robert Capa Says, “If your pictures are good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Created by Capa D-Day Landing with soldiers in between Normandy And his entire film career had a front-row seat to history. With that enthusiasm, I took on far less dangerous, but still heartbreaking adventures, walking back and forth. Sagamore BridgeNow under construction.
Anyone within a 500-mile radius Cape Cod Familiar with this famous structure. Built in 1933, this venerable old steel girder arch is often the first and last chapter of any Cape Cod vacation and is usually not a good read. It has become famous for year-round traffic jams.
When then- Govt. Mitt Romney promised to tear up the old Sagamore rotary on the mainland, hoping traffic would flow faster. I was there on December 3, 2004 when the governor picked up a jackhammer he thought was off and posed for a line-up of media.
But it was on. He pulled the lever and sprayed the photo crew with concrete shrapnel—indeed, the best groundbreaking I’ve ever covered.
Traffic flow has improved, but 19 years later, it’s still a bottleneck, especially now. Orange cones descending to one lane in each direction separate oncoming traffic from workers, a nightmare for a morning commuter.
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My journey to the bridge was Route 6A, arriving at the Christmas Tree Shops parking lot around 7:50 a.m. I parked, shoved all my gear down, made sure nothing was loose and headed for the sidewalk.
The view was always spectacular, the noise of roads and construction was deafening. I hug the sidewalk a lot right. Still, there’s about two feet between the camera lens and the wide truck side view mirrors.
Coming to the Cape was much worse than heading off to standstill traffic. Construction workers in Day-Glo vests and decal-covered hard hats glowed in the morning sun, working nonchalantly alongside a steady stream of bewildered and late motorists driving 30 mph. I was getting a lot more attention than I wanted, honking horns, finger gestures and even several motorists stopping through the window, demanding to have their picture taken.
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I pictured all the familiar sights, lines of traffic, distracted drivers and even jackhammer crews cutting the pavement just like when the governor was back. But the image that sticks out, a pair of shadows and a good old-fashioned shovel, might be a scene from the original construction 90 years ago.
