Longfellow Bridge

Time-lapse animation from MassDOT. With bonus new-agey guitar track that fortunately you can just turn off when it gets really annoying. And don't worry - they'll be putting the shakers back on.

WBUR reports on the impending three-year Longfellow Bridge repair project that will include a total of 25 weekends of Red Line bustitution and lane restrictions for drivers.

Boston from the Red Line is a site that only posts photos of Boston from the Red Line.

Via BostInno.

A third-rail problem on the Kendall side of the Longfellow means delays in both directions on the Red Line, as in, power had to be shut off between Park and Kendall so workers can fix it. At 9:41 a.m., Alice B tweeted:

Just deboarded at Central. Red line inbound not moving due to 3rd rail fail at Kendall. No inbound trains for at least 20 min

UPDATE: T announced at 9:52 a.m. the problem was fixed and that service was resuming, with, of course, the ever popular "residual delays."

A car chase that started on the Tobin Bridge this afternoon ended in Kendall Square after a state trooper fired at the alleged suspect, who drove away only to crash his car on the other side of the Longfellow, got out of the car, boarded the Red Line at Charles/MGH and then was pulled off the train at Kendall by waiting state troopers.

L.V. Randolph - cofounder of a company trying to work with the T on revenue enhancement - tweeted at 10:44 a.m. he'd been sitting there for 30 minutes while the T tries to get a relief train in place.

The tweeting must have done the trick - three minutes later, he was tweeting from Charles/MGH.

MassBike reports MassDOT has picked a design for the renovation of the Longfellow that features just one vehicle lane outbound and wider lanes for bicyclists and pedestrians in both directions.

MassDOT reports a truck got stuck under the Longfellow on Memorial Drive around 6:00 a.m., shutting the road, of course. And not just any truck: A big-ass truck.

James Harvey tweeted around 5:30 p.m.:

Just had the Red Line doors open in the middle of the Longfellow Bridge.

Eric Steinhardt, apparently on the same train, reports the doors stayed open only very briefly, not even long enough for him to jump out.

Red Line service was stopped in both directions; traffic a mess as well.

AlertNewEngland reports the worker appears to be conscious. The worker was extricated not long after rescue crews arrived. Channel 7 reports he suffered only minor arm injuries.

Dive and search teams from the Boston and Cambridge fire departments and State Police raced to the Charles River at the Longfellow Bridge late Friday after a woman pulled out of the water said she had thrown her kids in the water - and troopers spotted children's clothing near where she jumped. But reported that State Police discovered the children safe at home with family - in Florida - about 30 minutes later and the search was called off.

One possible outbound Longfellow realignmentA state task force meets Wednesday to consider possible options for re-aligning the venerable bridge as part of the state's $255-million repair program.

The session to consider three options begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Shriners Hospital auditorium, 51 Blossom St.

Options range from keeping the current two car lanes in both directions to shrinking car lanes to one in each direction - and reducing their widths. According to a draft report, most task-force members would prefer to go down to one car lane outbound from Boston to allow for wider bike and pedestrian lanes.

The task force rejected a proposal for "flexible" lanes that would be restricted to bicyclists only at certain hours, in part because task force members realize Massholes would attempt to drive in the lane during those hours.

Regardless of road configuration on the bridge, the task force agrees the state needs to reconfigure the approaches for cars, pedestrians and bicyclists at Charles Circle, and that the state finally build the missing 500 feet of a walkway under the bridge on the Cambridge side. One proposal calls for construction of a new pedestrian bridge linking the Longfellow to the Esplanade.

• Longfellow Task Force documents and discussions

ForLeft considers two alternates for a rebuilt Longfellow - one of which has only one traffic lane in each direction:

... I love the idea of cutting down on car traffic and [putting] benches on the walks. This is a chance to really change the urban environment. ...

If it works and one train can push the dead inbound train off the bridge (or rather, down the tracks to the next station), should mean some relief for people stuck in a train in the sun with no air conditioning on the hottest day in eight years. If not, they could always make a break for it. Unfortunately, that would do little for people waiting in sweltering stations - or the trains behind the trains on the bridge, such as JJ Leslie, who tweets:

I am stuck on a train behind the disabled RL train. In the station at Central. People are getting very angry. Bad feeling.

This morning around midnight on the Longfellow Bridge, according to Boston.com. Note to Globe: Red Line cars are not "subway trolleys".

JJ Leslie was among the unfortunate who spent more than 30 minutes in a dead inbound Red Line train on the Longfellow tonight. He live-tweeted the experience:

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals today reversed a Boston man's gun-possession conviction because prosecutors failed to prove he owned the gun in the friend's car he was driving at the time - or that he even knew the weapon was there.

The Boston Fire Department tweets the body of a man who jumped off the Longfellow around 6:30 p.m. was recovered on the Cambridge side of the Charles. Wicked Local Cambridge reports foul play is not suspected.

Dan Tobin was facing the Citgo sign on the way home from Cambridge this evening:

... It's a landmark I invariably associate with the Red Sox and tonight I realized that, no matter how the season ended up - with us as champions or the hated Yankees taking the crown - this is the time of year when baseball is in hibernation. It won't be long before being outside itself is a chore and means braving the nasty winter that comprises half the Boston year. It made me a little sad facing up to this reality. But it also made me thankful to know that one day the Sox will come back, the cold weather will lift, and the city will become a beautiful place once again.

State Police are at the Longfellow Bridge right now, checking out a "suspicious package," Boston Police tweet. Presumably, it is not made of Lite Brites.

But that's what somebody did early this morning - and after he was fished out of the Charles, he was taken away in the custody of the State Police, Boston_Fireman tweets.

Channel 5 reports the two alleged yutzes charged with selling 91,000 pounds of ornamental scrollwork from the Longfellow Bridge as scrap last year are expected to plead guilty.

According to a press release that I received from the DCR yesterday, the upstream (south) sidewalk of the Longfellow Bridge reopened yesterday.

Here's the full text of the press release:

Jonathan captures the Longfellow in a moody moment.

Used under this Creative Commons license.

All lanes now open, Channel 4 reports.