{"id":167,"date":"2022-01-17T08:11:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T13:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/?p=167"},"modified":"2022-01-19T16:23:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T21:23:58","slug":"wrbp-community-radio-season-6-episode-x-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"WRBP | Community Radio – Season 6, Episode 2: Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Season 6, Episode 2<\/strong>
January 30, 2022
Theme: <\/strong>Bridges
Playlist<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve taken the train to New York or Boston from home<\/a>. It is a trip I made relatively often as a child, thanks in large part to my dad\u2019s employment with Amtrak. Because he spent Tuesday through Saturday banging his hands in the Wilmington shops, we \u2013 he, mom, James and me \u2013 had access to ride the train for free. Around Christmastime, we\u2019d hop on in Wilmington and disembark in New York to enjoy the claustrophobia and energy that Manhattan has to offer at that time of year. And later, when I moved to New England, the train was a great option to get home without driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These trips gave me the opportunity to see two landmarks. The first is the FDNY training grounds outside of New York where John and John ran around while filming the \u201cAna Ng\u201d music video<\/a>. The second is a bridge in Trenton, NJ. Now, I\u2019m certainly no engineer or general bridge aficionado; this prevents me from commenting on the quality or style of the bridge. To be honest, the Lower Trenton Bridge<\/a> itself, which opened on January 30, 1806, isn\u2019t what sticks in my brain \u2013 it\u2019s what is attached to the bridge that is memorable. In 1935, a slogan was added to its southern side, which has been modernized since but remains today: TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much meaning is packed into those five oversized words. There\u2019s certainly a braggadocio about it, as if it\u2019s claiming, \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t survive without us.\u201d But there\u2019s also a pride: \u201cSay what you will about Trenton, or even New Jersey, but we make things that are useful.\u201d It\u2019s a declaration of purpose, of self-worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years to the day after the Lower Trenton Bridge opened, the Menai Suspension Bridge<\/a> did too. This bridge is located in a different country, connecting the island of Anglesey to the mainland of Wales. This bridge is notable not for what is spelled on its side, but for its status as the first major suspension bridge in the world. Initially built in part as a way to more safely transport cattle across the Menai Strait, the bridge has seen upgrades and improvements allowing it to be used for a variety of purposes \u2013 the main of which is safely crossing a body of water with two sets of tides<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of a bridge as a metaphor for safe crossing is common, but I\u2019m sure there are some other takes on the topic. Whatever resonates with you about the theme of bridges<\/strong>, pick one song and add it to our playlist by the 22nd<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I’ve taken the train to New York or Boston from home. It is a trip I made relatively often as a child, thanks in large part to my dad’s employment with Amtrak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinpoints.community\/hey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}