Editing Harvard Bridge (section)

==Smoots==
[[File:Smoot mark 210, east.jpg|275px|thumb|right|Smoot mark 210, east side of the bridge]]
{{Main|Smoot}}

The Harvard Bridge is marked off in an idiosyncratic unit of measure, the [[smoot]].

In 1958, members of the [[Lambda Chi Alpha]] fraternity at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] measured the bridge's eastern sidewalk by using that year's shortest [[wikt:pledge#Noun|pledge]], [[Oliver Smoot]]{{mdashb}}nominally, {{convert|5|ft|7|in|m|sigfig=3}} tall{{mdashb}}as a measuring stick.<ref name=haer5 /><ref name=mithistory49>{{cite web|url=http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N49/this_week-_49_c.49f.html|title=''This Month in MIT History'', "The Tech", volume 119, number 49|publisher=Tech.mit.edu|access-date=October 17, 2014|archive-date=May 4, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504192700/http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N49/this_week-_49_c.49f.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Years after this stunt, Smoot became president of the [[American National Standards Institute]] (ANSI), and later president of the [[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO).<ref name=ANSI>{{cite web|title=Oliver R. Smoot|url=http://www.ansi.org/other_services/speakers_bureau/smoot.aspx?menuid=10|publisher=American National Standards Institute (ANSI)|access-date=January 10, 2014|archive-date=July 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729001639/http://www.ansi.org/other_services/speakers_bureau/smoot.aspx?menuid=10|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Markers painted at {{convert|10|sm|ft m|adj=on|sigfig=4}} intervals give the bridge's length 364.4 [[smoot]]s long, "plus one ear". Originally this read "plus or minus one ear"{{mdashb}}representing measurement uncertainty<ref>[[Robert Tavernor|Tavernor, Robert]], ''Smoot's Ear: the Measure of Humanity'' (Yale University Press, 2007; paperback edition 2008), {{ISBN|978-0-300-12492-7}}, Preface</ref>{{mdashb}}but over the years the words "or minus" disappeared.<ref name="stone">{{cite web
| url         = http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/smoot-0604.html
| title       = Smoot in Stone
| date        = June 4, 2009
| work        = MIT News
| publisher   = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| location    = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
| access-date  = July 20, 2010
| quote       = Specifically noting the bridge's length of 364.4 Smoots (+/- 1 ear), the plaque, a gift of the MIT Class of 1962, honors the prank's 50th anniversary.
}}</ref>  The marks are repainted periodically by members of the fraternity<ref name=haer5 /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1962/techrev/9411.html|title=MIT Tech Review article|publisher=Alumweb.mit.edu|access-date=October 17, 2014|archive-date=September 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927074159/http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1962/techrev/9411.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2018}}{{mdashb}}originally surreptitiously and later openly.<ref name=topfive />

During the major reconstruction in the 1980s, the new sidewalks were divided into [[smoot]]-length slabs rather than the standard six feet, and the smoot markings were painted on the new deck.<ref>{{cite news
 | first = David A.
 | last = Fahrenthold
 | title = The Measure of This Man Is in the Smoot
 | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120702328_pf.html
 | newspaper = The Washington Post
 | location = Washington DC
 | date = December 8, 2005
 | access-date = April 20, 2009
 | quote = And then there was a little help from the government: When the bridge was renovated about 15 years ago, officials agreed to let the markings stay, even going so far as to score the sidewalk at 5-foot-7 Smoot intervals instead of the usual six-foot ones.
 }}</ref>  Officials' original determination to omit the smoot markings from the reconstructed bridge, and to scrupulously prevent the fraternity from repainting them, evaporated when it was realized that police routinely used the smoot marks as reference points in accident reports.<ref name=topfive>{{cite web
 | url =http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/hacks-0901.html
 | title =Keyser describes his top five hacks - MIT News Office
 | first =Denise
 | last =Brehm
 | date =September 1, 1999
 | work =MIT News
 | publisher =Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 | location =[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
 | access-date = March 4, 2012
 | quote =When the bridge was rebuilt in the 1980s, the Cambridge police requested that the smoots remain because they use them to indicate precise locations in accident reports.
 }}</ref>

The nominal length of 364.4 smoots (from two designated points at the bridge's ends) corresponds to about 2030 feet or 620 m, somewhat less than the bridge's published length of {{convert|660|m|ft sm|-1|sp=us|order=flip}}.<ref name=structurae />{{sfn|Alger|Matthews|1892|p=17}} A possible cause is that in 1958, there were ramps to [[Storrow Drive]] on both sides of the bridge, which interrupted the sidewalk earlier than it extends today. A bridge of {{convert|659.82|m|ft|sp=us|order=flip}}<ref name=structurae /><ref name=AM17>Alger and Matthews, p. 17</ref> corresponds to 387.7 smoots ± one ear.
{{Clear}}
{{wide image|Harvard_bridge_panorama.jpg|2300px|align-cap=center|Panoramic view from Harvard Bridge in the winter, looking east (downstream), with the [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] shore on the left and the [[Boston]] shore on the right.  The [[Longfellow Bridge]] is in the middle of the image, far downstream, with the triangular [[Zakim Bridge]] further behind it.}}