b'were no cars, no pedestrians, to make sure it was safe. You had to open the traffic gatesthe steel gates that went acrossthe roadwayto stop the automobiles and the pedestrians. You had to give an all-clear to the bridge operator to open the bridge and close the bridge. You did your daily chores of seeing that the place was clean, that the roadway wasclear of debris.In the summer when it was hot, the steel on some of the bridges, the Mill Basin Bridge on the Belt Parkway, for example, would sometimes expand and we couldnt open them, or if we got them open, we might not be able to closethem. The fireboats would come under the bridge and spray water up to cool off the steel so we could get them to openand close. In the wintertime the snow and the ice sometimes made it difficult to open or close the bridge, because thelocks froze.In the early days, there were a lot of boats: Greenpoint Avenuea very busy bridge; Metropolitan, very busy. Therewas Newtown Creek. You had oil barges, bricks brought from upstate on barges, oil tankers, lumber. Later on, things dieddown. They didnt transport as much by boat. When they modernized bridges, it was easier to operate them. We lost a lotof people.The day the bridges were left openThe bridge strike. That was the biggest thing that ever happened there in my 35 years.There was talk about a possible strike, but it was a few top people who were involved, who knew what they weregoing to do. I think it was the Siciliano brothers from the Harlem River section, maybe Lenny Gordon, possibly somebodyfrom our section. They tended to be more active.So, we got wind something was going to happen. When I went into work that day for the 8 to 4 shiftI was at the Borden Avenue Bridge, that connects Long Island City and BrooklynI found the bridge in the open position. It was 7 or7:30 in the morning. I didnt know what was going on. I parked my car on the Queens side and walked into the bridgehouse. The other worker (I cant remember his name) told me, The bridge is stuck open. I said, Whats happening? And he said, I think were on strike. Then he walked off.From what I understand, not too long before 7 a.m., someone came and removed something from the bridge, an electrical part, probably one of the high voltage fuses. So, I, personally, couldnt do anything with the bridge, and I wouldnt have.An hour or two later two policemen came. They asked a few questions like, could I close the bridge. I said, No, weremissing some parts, some electrical parts. They took a look around, down in the basement and the attic. They asked questions like, whats up there? what do you do? And they said, dont touch anything. That was it. They sat around all day.They were there to make sure there was no further vandalism.You can imagine the traffic that morning. Cars were making U turns like crazy. Pedestrians tried to get across to theother side. Long Island City was popular, there were a lot of factories. Many people were held up, and they were yellingand screaming and cursing and carrying on. It was a catastrophe all over the city. Especially on the highways, for peopletrying to get to these bridges. The next day the radio and the newspapers told about the traffic and the turmoil through-out the city because of the strike.Im not sure, but I dont think I went to work the next day. I do know that I lost two days pay, because of the 26 '