Williams to bridge builders: “Wow!”

Washington DC mayor Tony Williams is a seriously fervent fan of great builders, he revealed in a casual conversation with a reporter (Peter Perl, WASH POST MAG 10/29/00). When he was a kid growing up in LA in 1960 he lived near the route of the Santa Monica freeway and rode his bike around the construction. His reaction: “This is truly huge. Like wow!”

At school Williams says he daydreamed about being a big builder. And he says that now he’s a city mayor he “shamelessly” uses his position to get special tours of big projects when he travels. And he mused:

“I would have enjoyed being a builder, building bridges and tunnels. It appeals to me because you are venturing into the unknown... They had to push the boundaries of science as it was known at the time to make these things work. It takes someone with great leadership skills who has a vision, who can clearly market that vision and get the financing and capital to build these crazy things. Someone has gotta back these people and believe, for example, that a Golden Gate bridge could actually be built, when it’s not at all clear (it can) because they are pushing the limits of what has been done. They had an environment with deep waters and a huge tide, and they still hadn’t figured out the aerodynamics of these (suspension) bridges, so a lot of things were being pioneered. It is leadership in terms of building a team, the corporate organization, the different groups to do the different jobs, and keeping the workers morale up under very difficult conditions.”