the viaduct, again

For some reason, the demolition crews have cleaned up four of the support frames from the viaduct, closest to the tracks, and they look so different, when they're very light grey, almost white, instead of the oil-stained deep grey we've always known.

Did the viaduct all look like that, new?

I can't help think how different an impression it would've made, then - all light, but strong, almost marble, strewn along the dirty brick of the old industrial waterfront, a row of columns, shiny, and bright - not the wall it became, but an entryway, the entire city a Greek temple. A stripe of tomorrow slicing through the city, sure, but also, a piece of yesterday, of fiction, of mythology, a slice of Gondor itself slipped into the grey mists of Seattle, an entry gate and buttress both, lifting, strengthening, elevating everything, everything that touched it, saying come, travellers - welcome to Seattle. We are the future.

I wonder how long it took to decay.