readx;

The day before Easter, most companies and enterprises leave work an hour earlier, so that those who live dozens of kilometers away can return home before dark. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Before five o'clock in the afternoon, Manhattan's thirteen bridges and tunnels leading to the outside world were already full of traffic.

Traffic congestion, which exists in any major city, is even more pronounced in Manhattan. During rush hour, Manhattan's main street becomes an "open-air parking lot."

Inspector Nicholas of the Port Authority was also in the traffic jam.

As a senior detective with more than 20 years of police experience and 12 years in plainclothes, Nicholas does not have to patrol the streets in police cars like uniformed cops, or even commute to and from work on time. It's just that in recent months, Nicholas has not had an easy time.

Several cases kept Nicholas busy.

Although there are still many things to deal with, but thinking that tomorrow is Easter, Nicholas decides to give himself a night off and go home to have dinner with his wife and children.

For ordinary people, this is not a luxury, but for Nicholas, it is.

Nicholas's marriage has been pushed to the brink of breakdown, and if he does not try to make amends, he will lose the family that has been maintained for fourteen years.

For Nicholas, divorce is nothing, as he has been divorced twice.

Importantly, he did not want to lose his children, especially his son, who was already eleven years old.

Nicholas's grandfather was a police officer, and his father was also a police officer, so he also wanted his son to become a police officer, preferably a senior detective, like him.

To this end, Nicholas spent two hours going to a toy store on Fifth Avenue to buy his son a replica pistol.

When he was ten years old, the first gift he received from his father was a pistol, but instead of a toy pistol, it was a genuine pistol. Smith & Wesson's M60 revolver, and a box of .38 bullets. It was only four years later that he used the pistol for the first time, accompanied by his father. From then on, Nicholas set his mind to become a police officer, and at the age of eighteen, he was successfully admitted to the New York State Police Academy.

Nicholas believes that this replica pistol, which fires rubber bullets, will make his son do the same.

As we approached the Brooklyn Bridge, traffic stopped again, and a taxi collided with a Lincoln sedan, and the taxi driver pulled up in the middle of the road and was arguing with the driver of the car.

Nicholas honked his horn a few times, looking a little impatient.

Although he is a detective, traffic accidents are not within his scope. Besides, at this time, the port authority will send all the police to clear the traffic.

Sure enough, a patrol officer arrived a short time later.

After asking the taxi driver to pull over, the patrol officer called the two drivers to the side of the road, and the traffic continued to squirm forward.

As he passed the patrolman, Nicholas glanced at it. The patrol officer wore a helmet and dark green goggles covering his face. Because the license plate number was being registered, the patrol officer was facing Nicholas, so he did not notice the inspector in the car. Even if he noticed, he wouldn't greet Nicholas.

There was no need for Nicholas to greet the patrolman.

At the Port Authority, he was a detective who specialized in solving serious crimes, and he did not have much contact with the patrol police.

After finally squeezing onto the Brooklyn Bridge, Nicholas breathed a sigh of relief.

The traffic on the bridge is much better, there are no vehicles changing lanes at will, and all four traffic flows follow their own roads, and the speed is not very slow.

With a total length of more than 1,800 meters, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first bridge in the world to be built of steel, and when it was completed, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and was hailed as the eighth wonder of the world. Although the Brooklyn Bridge, which is more than 100 years old, is not grand compared to those bridges that were built later, for the United States, which does not have much history, this bridge has witnessed the most prosperous 100 years in the United States.

Today, the Brooklyn Bridge has become a sight to behold in New York.

Every day, 150,000 vehicles, thousands of pedestrians, and thousands of bicycles travel the bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan.

After getting on the bridge, Nicholas noticed that the number of vehicles coming from the opposite side was decreasing.

While most of the vehicles leave Manhattan at this time of day, there are still quite a few vehicles coming into Manhattan from Brooklyn, and there will not be as few as they do now.

Nearing the arch that marked the surname, the bridge pile, Nicholas saw some workers cleaning the slings.

The bridge is going to be maintained again?

These guys are also quite pathetic, and they have to work overtime the day before Easter.

Nicholas smiled, thinking that he was lucky, at least not to climb dozens of meters high to paint the slings like the maintenance personnel of the municipal corporation.

When he was about to get off the bridge, Nicholas saw that on the opposite lane, three police cars lined up, blocking the road.

In the opposite lane, thousands of vehicles lined up in four rows, all waiting for the police to let them go.

It's a bit strange that after setting up the fence to block the road, the six police officers did nothing, all smoking and chatting next to the police car.

What are they doing?

Nicholas deliberately took a closer look.

The six police officers were all in uniform, wearing police hats and sunglasses, but it was obvious that they were all yellow-skinned Asians. It's no surprise that only 750,000 Asians are among the eight million New Yorkers. In the last decade, many immigrants from Eastern countries have come to New York and settled here. In order to deal with the problem caused by the increase in Asian Americans, the New York Police Department not only organized police officers to learn Eastern languages such as Chinese and Mandarin, but also recruited many Asian American police officers. In any case, the same skin color and similar faces can make newcomers who don't know much about the United States feel more credible.

It's just that the police are blocking the road, what are they doing?

Just maintaining the sling, it does not affect the passage of vehicles, and there is no need to block the road.

You know, the Brooklyn Bridge has to carry out routine maintenance on the slings twice a year, mainly by painting anti-rust paint and repairing the detached solder joints. These works are generally scheduled to take place at night, and only need to close the outer two lanes at most, and will not be closed to traffic.

There must be something else.

As Nicholas thought this, the car slowed down and widened the distance from the car in front. The driver in the back seemed impatient and honked his horn a few times.

After coming to his senses, Nicholas quickly stepped on the accelerator and increased the speed of the car.

What are those patrolmen doing, and what does it have to do with him?

Nicholas just wanted to go home early, have dinner with his wife and children, and then tell his son what he had experienced, so that he could aspire to become a police officer.

It's just that the police block the road for no reason, and it will definitely cause trouble.

As he descended the bridge, Nicholas saw several middle-aged men in crisp suits arguing loudly with the two policemen who were maintaining order, presumably questioning why the police didn't let them get on the bridge.

There is nothing wrong with questioning, and anyone in the United States can question it.

The two policemen were very patient and did not argue with each other, but only said a few words between the other party's words, presumably explaining the reason for the road closure.

Because there was a constant honking of the car, Nicholas did not hear clearly.

All he saw was that the two officers were wearing the insignia of the Brooklyn Police Department, which had little to do with the Port Authority Police Department, to which he belonged.

I don't know, but tomorrow's newspapers will report on it.

Nicholas shook his head with a wry smile, being a police officer was certainly not an easy job. Before becoming a detective, he also worked as a patrol officer for several years, encountered a lot of trouble, and was complained about several times. If it weren't for the fact that his grandfather and father were both police officers at the Port Authority, and they made outstanding contributions, and their bosses were all acquaintances, I am afraid that those complaints would ruin his future and make him deal with motorcycles for the rest of his life.

When I got off the bridge, the situation on the road became worse, and vehicles kept changing lanes.

Nicholas slowed down, he didn't want a traffic accident to ruin the family party he had been planning for months.

It was at this time that Nicholas noticed that the six policemen blocking the bridge had all gotten into the police car, but had not removed the barricade in the middle of the road.

Are they going to leave like that?

Nicholas looked habitually in the rearview mirror and saw that the number of cars coming from behind was decreasing, or rather, there were no more cars coming from behind, except for the few cars that had been following behind.

That is, there are no more vehicles on the bridge at this time!

What's going on, to blockade Manhattan Island?

Nicholas immediately stepped on the brakes to take a look, but before his car could stop, the driver behind him honked his horn again.

Nicholas had no choice but to change lanes to the right, ready to find a place to stop the car.

It was at this time that he saw a scene in the rearview mirror that he could not believe no matter what, and that he would never forget in his life.

As if hit by something a few times, the bridge deck between the two piers suddenly fell.

The broken steel cable swung in the air like a leather whip, and when it fell, it hit the car at the back of the traffic, breaking the car and the people into two pieces.

Nicholas' first reaction was not to step on the gas, but on the brakes and get out of the car.

The front is full of cars, and even if you step on the accelerator, you can't run away.

After he got out of the car, the people in the nearby vehicles reacted, quickly got out of the car, and ran forward.

Because the steel cable in the center of the bridge broke and the tensile force on both sides of the pier was unbalanced, the pier collapsed in the direction of Brooklyn under the pull of the outer steel cable.

Nicholas was lucky, because he got out of the car in time and ran towards the bridgehead in time.

The few people who followed him were also lucky, and they all avoided the fallen piers.

It's just that many more people are not lucky, and by the time they react, the bridge piers have already fallen down.

The same misfortune happened on other bridges and in several tunnels. In just two minutes, Manhattan was completely cut off from the outside world and became an island.

When the Brooklyn Bridge collapsed, Stewart in Southport was guiding a freighter into the harbor.

That scene was about to catch his eyes.

(To be continued)