b'So, Mattie took the parts home.He took the parts home for safekeeping.And you just left the bridges up.Just left them up. The funny thing, riding on the subway I could almost hear the people blowing their horns. Because the bridges werent coming down. . . .And this was rush hour.And in those days, the Unionport Bridgethere was no overpass then. Every major road came through the UnionportBridge. Cross Bronx, down from the New England Thruway, parts of the Hutcheverything. You had to go over that bridge.Theres no way you can get around it.So, I went downtown, and Im saying to myself as Im riding on the trainNow remember, at Unionport its not likeon the Harlem River, where when one bridge opens, the guys can see each other because they were on the same water-way, you give each other encouragement. So, Im riding on the train thinking to myself, Im saying, Those sons of a guns,they better come through, because if they catch me alone, Ill probably wind up in jail.And you couldnt tell because you were in the subway.Im in the subway, I dont know whats going on. I said, I cant ride the subway, Im just too intense, I gotta get into acab, so I got off at 125th Street. I get into the cab and the first thing the cab driver says to me is, You know, I cant gethome. All the bridges on the Harlem River are open. I cant even cross.Thats when I knew everybody did it!How did you feel?I felt a load off my back, because now I had everybody with me.I got down to union headquarters and guys were coming in from all over. Some guys brought handles into theunion! They walked in and said, Look what I got.Then we talked, and Barry told us this, this, and this. And then we went home.I took the train home and I had to change at Parkchester. At Parkchester, the station goes over the Cross Bronx. I looked down on that Cross Bronx and it was solid sitting still. People were walking around like in a daze. I said to myself,Oh, my god, those people will kill me. To make it worse, it was a 93-degree day, it was very hot. You could see hoods upall over the place, cars overheating. The noise of the people blowing their horns. Those people were mad. I dont have totell you how mad they were.That morning, my wife was taking my son to school, and she could hear the mothers saying, They should get thosebridge guys and put them in jail for the rest of their lives.When I got home, I told my kids, dont tell anybody I work on the bridge.Tell us more about that day.Danny Gibson and Victor Echavarry were also in the Bronx. The guy who was supposed to open the Hutchinson River115 '