Refugee but my parents were refugees. Theres a fracturing of the share experience. Me life was different in the United States, the life was different in canada, my sisters life is different in england. Did all right relatively speaking but that vastly overlambingers and yep oliving together in the same language and the same cultural context, the same as it were social abilities, we share that experience, unity of time and place and experience that we shared, and then gets fractured and get bren up. Even if we had moved to the same place, there would have been a fracture because i spoke english better, was not a professional who lost his job to migrate. Had not lost my social contact and so on. So what happen is this fracturing of a shared experience within the family and one of the ways again to agree with reyna is to tell stories or write to build the bridges, theres something about building a bridge between the new country and old country within this community, within a family, multi
Chair, the program committee. Dave and i thank you all for coming this evening to our lecture series. A nice turnout, a lot of different competition out there, but who can compete with this man right . Bill merchant, a great friend of mine, but of course, hes a great historian and hes really wheel and bringing forth the true history of a great story known as the delaware and hudson canal. So tonight, bill will give you a chock full of new information, great insights and wonderment bill merchant everyone. Thank you very much for coming this evening. Im the Deputy Director for collections historian and here at the dean Canal Historical Society and im the chair or president of the delaware and hudson transportation heritage council. Now that ive gotten over the most difficult part of the talk, im really delighted to do this particular presentation. I have never done it here for the Canal Society. My general history of the dredge. Im working on a book on the topic and itll probably be call
Lecture series. A nice turnout, a lot of different competition out there, but who can compete with this man right . Bill merchant, a great friend of mine, but of course, hes a great historian and hes really wheel and bringing forth the true history of a great story known as the delaware and hudson canal. So tonight, bill will give you a chock full of new information, great insights and wonderment bill merchant everyone. Thank you very much for coming this evening. Im the Deputy Director for collections historian and here at the dean Canal Historical Society and im the chair or president of the delaware and hudson transportation heritage council. Now that ive gotten over the most difficult part of the talk, im really delighted to do this particular presentation. I have never done it here for the Canal Society. My general history of the dredge. Im working on a book on the topic and itll probably be called the dutch canal 19th century engine of prosperity, because indeed it was. This is a
Series. So id like to thank quay and devon who currently run the program here and remind you there are several more coming up in july and august. The next is powerhouse arena with sarah girard and hannah tente speaking. A little bit about this book and about erica wagner. As you can tell from the backdrop here, this is a great topic for this setting in Brooklyn Bridge park. You know, not most great monuments dont have, dont inspire great writing, but i would say the Brooklyn Bridge is an exception to all of that. You know, from hart crane, you know, to many other poets and writers and notably to the nonfiction writer David Mccullough, there have been really inspired writing on this subject. And err can ca wagner is right up there erica wagner is right up there. What shes done with this biography of Washington Roebling is even remind everyone how even though she was the son of he was the son of a designer, he was the person along with his wife who got it through, you know, a dozen or so
When i want to give up, he helps me go on. I know that nothing can be done perfectly at the first trial, he once wrote. I also know each day brings its middle quota of experiences, which, with honest intentions, will lead to perfection after a while. So thats just a little bit about how this remarkable structure came to be built all those years ago. A structure that has endured with some but notmuch alteration from that day to this. I thought id read you also a little bit from the book. As i mentioned in my talk, Emily Roebling washingtons wife was a truly remarkable woman. When he became very ill in the 1870s, the episode i just read to you was the beginning of his sickness. He got much, much sicker after that. In 1973 and 1875, he really thought that he would die. He didnt die. He remained in control of the bridge but emily was his extraordinary mn events is, helping him, going down to the Bridge Consulting with the other engineers, truck talking to the trustees, doing all the compli