Pictures from Lego MLK Bridge

To celebrate MLK Day at Williams, the Chaplain's Office and the Davis Center asked if I and my class would be interested in making a Lego bridge. We were excited about this opportunity, and this became one of the three focal points of our winter study class. We quickly bought a few pieces to do some quick experiments, both at Williams and at the Adventures in Learning class we taught at the Williamstown Elementary School. The kids there were terrific, and contributed several great ideas (as well as a ton of multi-colored Lego bricks!). They helped us especially with the towers, both at their school and in the pre-build event at Paresky. We started the big build on Monday around 12.30, moving down to the fireplace area at 3.30. We promised we would have the suspension bridge done by 4:30pm, but for the longest time this did not look like it would happen (in part because only a third to half the bricks we ordered arrived; fortunately we split our purchases into many small orders, and many of the pieces arrived on Tuesday and thus in time for next year). The middle was too heavy (even though we were building it upward), the towers kept rushing towards each other. We lessened the weight in the middle, moved some benches and sent technic pieces down to wrap around them as anchors, and with 3-5 minutes to spare (and $48 under budget!) it all came together and held without any support in the middle (though the Lego Sydney Opera House has probably been cannibalized beyond any chance at salvage). More importantly, in addition to coming in under budget we were part of a push to raise money for St Jude's Hospital. All told over $500 was donated at Paresky that day; this is a very worthwhile organization and I strongly urge you to check them out. I've known and supported them for years, and some of the funds are going for Lego sets in memory of Braden Berner (see https://www.facebook.com/Bradens-Love-378050912207031/info?tab=page_info and https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=braden+love+lego+2015 ).

For me, when I hear the word bridge I think of the phrase `bridging our differences', but I'm also reminded that a bridge must be made of pieces. Lego bricks are wonderful building blocks, showing the strength that can arise when differences are embraced and integrated, and thus exceptionally `fitting' (if you'll forgive the pun) for the day. Our original motif was to have the Lego Martin Luther King lead the marchers either from color to black and white (bringing the color and unity with him), or from black and white to color (entering a world where all exist harmoniously). In the end we had them marching and bringing the colors with them because when Erik and I went to add the minifigures, the chairs we needed to stand on where at the rainbow end!   

Some quick facts about the bridge: The towers are mostly standard bricks, mostly solid levels with bricks built over cracks. Much of the beginning and ideas for these came from the elementary school kkids. It's tough to see in the photos, but on one base we have four giant people built around it. The idea was to try to get these high and heavy, with technic bricks running along the road (which is a combination of base plate and parts from the Sydney Opera House) and then having cables running up. This proved too heavy, so we adjusted to just having the two cables come to the center, and then wrapped around the table as a counter-weight. Next time we think we'd build the towers not vertical but spreading apart, and thus the center of mass would be in a better place and provide a counterbalance (see this great paper on maximum overhang, and on a personal note I'd like to share that the second named author was my first college math professor at Yale: https://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~msp/papers/maximum_overhang.pdf ).

We hope you're able to swing by Paresky and enjoy it. For next year's festivities, we plan on having a bridge span the open space on the second floor. If you're interested in helping, please email me at sjm1@williams.edu.

Original pics before we added the marching minifigures.

You can see the 'lifting' from the pressure....