Dear Sir,
During a confusing encounter on Santiago Calatrava’s James Joyce Bridge, Frank McNally missed the point of an Italian tourist’s comment as he grappled with slipping and skidding on the transparent walkway (An Irishman’s Diary, March 1). The tourist possibly alluded to the fact that the Venetian hospitals regularly dealt with incidents of individuals falling over on a similar bridge constructed by the Spanish architect over the Grand Canal, until measures were implemented to replace the tempered-glass steps with a material more friendly to pedestrians, i.e., stone. The signature glass surfaces of Calatrava are inherently slippery, so this shouldn’t have caught anyone off guard. To illustrate, look at his earlier Zubizuri Bridge in Bilbao. The entire walkway had to be ultimately overlaid with a non-slip plastic rug due to the high number of injuries being reported.
Kind Regards,
Dr. John Doherty,
Gaoth Dobhair, Co Dhún na nGall.