There are men who have bad timing, and there are men who describe the Brooklyn Bridge as “one of the greatest architectural feats of all time, a thing called the Brooklyn Bridge: one of the most beautiful bridges anywhere in the world” while firefighters 230 miles away respond to the Brooklyn Bridge being on fire.
The Macy’s July Fourth fireworks show in New York City set a rubbish fire on the Manhattan-bound side of the Brooklyn Bridge at approximately 9:40 p.m. Saturday, per the FDNY, producing visible flames and a plume of smoke over the East River while crowds on both sides watched what they had come to see, which was fireworks and not a structural emergency. No injuries were reported. The fire was extinguished. Trump, delivering his remarks from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was not aware of the fire during the speech, which is the kind of detail that reporters will include in every retrospective about this evening for the foreseeable future.
The evening had already required a considerable amount of willpower to reach the speech portion. Severe thunderstorms struck the National Mall earlier Saturday and evacuated the Salute to America celebration, prompting Trump to post on Truth Social: “I’M HERE!!!” He then compared himself to World War II veterans who had faced hellfire, which is a comparison that aged interestingly given what then happened to the bridge. Per Breitbart, he posted: “Our great veterans, especially the old timers, many of whom are there, went through hellfire, and it didn’t stop them. It’s not going to stop us either.” Doors reopened at 9:45 p.m. ET. The speech began at 11 p.m. ET. It ran 37 minutes and included the declaration that America is “the crowning achievement of human history,” which is a significant claim for a speech given on the same night as a structural fire on the nation’s most photographed bridge.
Trump had been listing historic American flags during the bridge passage, describing ancestors of famous figures who were “with us tonight,” including someone presenting a flag that had “first waved over one of the greatest architectural feats of all time, a thing called the Brooklyn Bridge.” He finished the sentence. The bridge was on fire when he finished it. He then declared a golden age.
The Brooklyn Bridge was built between 1869 and 1883, survived every previous July Fourth, and survived this one too, which is the part of the story that the “greatest architectural feat” framing earns.
When the president declares a golden age during a speech in which the monument he is praising simultaneously catches fire 230 miles away, what exactly is the age golden with?
Sources
Fox News: Brooklyn Bridge catches fire amid NYC fireworks as Trump hails it in D.C. speech
Fox News live: America 250, Independence Day July 4
Breitbart: Trump directs celebration to reopen after storm
