How Many Smoots?

Now that I live in Boston, I often walk or run over the Mass Ave Bridge (aka Harvard Bridge) where there are strange, colorful, ruler-like markings every 6 feet or so for the entire length.  Rewind to 1982 when I was a first-year at Wellesley and learned the legendary story of why the bridge is measured in “smoots”.  In 1958, when Oliver Smoot was pledging MIT’s Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, his brothers had him lay down (365 times?) to measure out “one smoot”.  They marked each smoot (about 5’ 7”) for the entire span of the bridge and those smoot designations still exist today.  For good measure, my brother Adam (pictured here) lay down to confirm he is longer than one smoot.  It brings a smile to my face even as I write this for I love the innocence and creativity of the pledge task, along with its enduring legacy.