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A new symbol for Jerusalem?
In a city of landmarks, one more will be dedicated tonight.
The Bridge of Strings, a 387-foot-high suspension bridge for a new light rail line over a highway intersection at the Western entrance to Jerusalem, has been met mostly with criticism.
Suspended by 66 cables that are meant to evoke David’s Harp, the soaring white structure that perhaps more closely resembles a sail, contrasts sharply with the low-rise stone city.
The Jerusalem municipality hopes the bridge will become a symbol for the city, but Israelis have questioned the need for another symbol. (Jerusalem’s religious symbols are well known.)
“When people try to force a symbol on the public, there’s a risk that the monument will turn into a farce,” Micha Broth, an Israeli urban planner at Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology, told the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. “It reminds me of totalitarian regimes that attempted to create many symbols and force their monuments.”
It’s also been criticized for its cost — $73 million, more than three times its budget. The bridge’s designer is acclaimed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
The light rail line that the bridge will carry won’t be ready for another two years, but the city will inaugurate the bridge in a ceremony Wednesday night attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The event, which will cost nearly $600,000 and include fireworks, singers and acrobats, has also drawn criticism for its cost in a city that ranks as Israel’s poorest.
Finally, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers urged the inauguration to be canceled when news emerged that a Palestinian subcontractor for the project employed workers during the Jewish Sabbath, when observant Jews do not work.
“The municipality was stunned to discover this week that a subcontractor from East Jerusalem … carried out surfacing work at the bridge’s plaza before the end of Shabbat (Sabbath)” the city said in a statement.
The subcontractor was fired.
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