Musical route

A deeply disliked stretch of road has proven a powerful inspiration for a symphony written by musician Sufjan Stevens. The man was commissioned to write a piece of music about his home city by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and he opted to compose his piece about the infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Called the BQE by New Yorkers, the flyover features narrow lanes, has no hard shoulder and is badly potholed, while high traffic volumes mean that jams and accidents are frequent and it has the dubious honour
February 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A deeply disliked stretch of road has proven a powerful inspiration for a symphony written by musician Sufjan Stevens. The man was commissioned to write a piece of music about his home city by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and he opted to compose his piece about the infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Called the BQE by New Yorkers, the flyover features narrow lanes, has no hard shoulder and is badly potholed, while high traffic volumes mean that jams and accidents are frequent and it has the dubious honour of being one of the two most congested roads in the US (the other is in Los Angeles). Stevens explained that the BQE is so loathed by its users that he wanted to transform the image of this despised route into something of beauty. The symphony also provides the soundtrack for a short film he made about the expressway. The city authorities plan to replace the road but in the mean time, some angry drivers caught in jams could be soothed if the music were to be played over a public address system.

Related Content

  • ARTBA annual video competition winners
    March 4, 2021
    ARTBA’s annual video competition winners have been announced.
    Read More
  • Building Spain's highest viaduct
    July 9, 2012
    Amid a mountain wilderness, a new highway system rises, featuring Spain's highest viaduct For years, motorists and truck drivers in northern Spain have had to endure using a dangerous road liable to traffic hold-ups, delays and accidents, and frequently impassable in the depths of winter. In any event it is a slow and tortuous climb from Molledo on the Cantabrian lowlands up the N-611 road through the Cantabrian Mountains to Palencia, on the Meseta, Spain's high central plateau.
    Read More
  • Bridge collapse on key I-5 route in Washington State
    June 24, 2013
    The news that a key highway bridge has collapsed in the US comes as gloomy reading for all in the highway sector. When a section of the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Skagit River in Washington failed in May 2013, a number of vehicles were plunged into the river. Luckily no-one was killed in the incident on the route, which is one of the main links between the US and Canada, and the parallel bridge was able to carry traffic, albeit with delays for users.
    Read More
  • India plans major infrastucture investment
    February 10, 2012
    India says it turned its Commonwealth Games into a world-class success, and now it aims to do the same with its infrastructure. Patrick Smith reports. On October, 2010 India put itself on the world stage, and disaster appeared to loom as a catalogue of problems dogged its biggest ever sporting event. Costing nearly US$2 billion to stage, the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever were, according to some, in doubt.
    Read More

Highlighted Content