This post by Jamie Swift over on the Hood Canal Bridge Blog is absolutely priceless:
Memorial Day weekend brings a wave of people to the Olympic Peninsula. People who visit just once a year, or just once, period. People who for 364 days a year have no need to know the Hood Canal Bridge is closed.
We met many of those people today.
My assignment this morning was to stand at the corner of SR 3 and SR 104 and be the bearer of bad news for motorists who approached without any idea the bridge is closed.
Doesn’t sound too challenging, but the task ended up testing the limits of my skill-set. As a public relations professional, I’m comfortable talking to people – and taking verbal abuse from frustrated commuters is just part of my job.
However, as car after car hesitated on the high-speed highway, or pulled past the orange barrels positioned to keep cars off the bridge, I knew my job today was not to be a smiling ambassador for the state of Washington. I had to communicate quickly, give directions as succinctly as possible, and then sternly send people on their way. If I didn’t, the cars would back up on to the highway and create a dangerous situation for everyone.
I learned today how stressful controlling traffic can be. At one point there were seven or eight cars, all parked and pointed the wrong way on a section of pavement big enough for about 12 cars. I found myself doing more yelling than talking as I directed the vehicles away from the bridge: STOP, NO, GO BACK, WATCH OUT, HANG ON ONE SECOND, WRONG WAY, KEEP MOVING, YOU CAN’T STOP THERE.
Even in such a high-stress situation, I did a lot of smiling and met a lot of nice people – and no shortage of frustrated people. I heard the standard four-letter words from several people upon telling them they have to drive around the canal.
