Capecodtoday.com – On this day in 1966, residents of Martha’s Vineyard reacted angrily to a proposal that the state build a toll bridge between Cape Cod and the island.
The Automobile Legal Association was urging then Governor John A. Volpe to build a bridge due to what it called “exorbitant” ferry rates.
The association claimed that ferry prices between Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard “are now the highest ferry fares in North America.”
Leading the opposition was the famed editor of the Vineyard Gazette, Henry Beetle Hough on left, who proclaimed, “It’s just insane.”
A slightly calmer island chamber of commerce head said, “a bridge will ruin this island.”
Well, Henry Hough hit the nail on the head with this one. A bridge to Martha’s Vineyard is “just insane”. If there were a bridge to The Vineyard it would be the 7th longest bridge in the United States. Imagine over 7 miles of bridge packed with idiots from states that start with “New”?
Oh and what on earth would happen to all of those cars when they got to the island? Martha’s Vineyard would be a parking lot. Not like how we call The Cape a parking lot in the summer, but literally, a parking lot. Nobody would be able to get anywhere.
Next time you hear someone get all nostalgic about the “old days” and how good we had it back then. Don’t believe that shit for a second. People were idiots back then. You’d have to be about as evolved as an orangutan to think a bridge to Martha’s Vineyard is a good idea in any way shape or form.
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Although to me the decision not to build the bridge is a disappointment, I like the way they see it that if a bridge were to be built, Martha's Vineyard would no longer be an island. That's what fascinates me about oversea bridges. That dredging and creating a land bridge is not the only way for either an island to become officially part of the mainland. Or even more fascinating, 2 continents conjoined. Like North America and Asia. Or in that case, 2 continents conjoined with 3 others: Africa, Europe and Asia conjoined with the Americas. Resulting in a new supercontinent: Afro-Eurasiamerica. Conjoined by a bridge and not on the condition of by land. Like the Bering Land Bridge. Or Adam's Bridge. Or the Land Bridge of Gibraltar. Or the Mediterranean Basin. Or the Mandeb Land Bridge. Or the Isthmus of Panama. I can't list them all. There are so many of these narrow strips of land and waterways that used to be dry and linked both shores that are now seperated, but were once conjoined.