Scaffolding

SAN DIEGO - Scaffolding collapsed on more than a dozen cars at the nation's busiest border crossing Wednesday, injuring at least 11 people and halting all traffic trying to enter from Mexico, authorities said. A construction worker at the San Ysidro crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, was in serious condition, said Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. The others were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, he said. A section of scaffold installed to protect cars from overhead construction collapsed onto eight of the crossing's 24 northbound vehicle lanes shortly before 11 a.m., officials said.

The sidewalk along Locust Street near Broad has darkened, and the air smells of fresh-sawn pine planking. Eight levels of scaffolding crept up the north side of the Academy of Music recently, preparation for another summer of maintenance. The building, opened in 1857, was home to the Philadelphia Orchestra for a century, and though the ensemble no longer performs there much, the orchestra still owns it and is responsible for its renovation. Work began in earnest in 1994 and has continued just about every summer.

In the course of a long-running major repair job on the venerable Washington Monument, a lot of people in this staid old city have fallen in love with . . . the scaffolding. Some are even discussing the possibility of leaving the scaffolding - designed by noted postmodern architect Michael Graves - in place after the repair job is completed next year, or moving it to another prominent location. This being Washington, a town not noted for doing back flips over the nouveau, there is also a solid minority that hates the new structure.

Strong winds knocked two window-washers from their scaffolding alongside a four-story office building yesterday, causing one of them to plunge 52 feet, East Whiteland police said. Richard Culbertson of Honey Brook was flown to Brandywine Hospital, where he was in stable condition last night. His partner, Steve Petronri of West Chester, who had his safety harness on, dangled until firefighters arrived. He is fine, police said. "At this point, we're blaming it on the wind," said Detective Sgt. Jay Hess of the township police.

Cee Williams just knew there was something wrong with City Hall. He just couldn't put his finger on it. No, no, nothing political. He looked around the sun-splashed courtyard Friday afternoon. "Something's missing," he ventured. "I don't know what it is, but something's not right. " He cast his critical eye over the white granite facades, dazzling in the light. And then it hit him: no scaffolding. No Erector set of planks and pipes and screwed-together steel steps, no ladders dangling over empty space, no plastic tarps flapping in the breeze, no whine of cleaning machines, no hammering, no entrances blocked, no yellow caution tape, no construction fencing.

Don't think the criticism about how long scaffolding encased the City Hall Tower didn't bother Mayor Goode. It did. When the last piece of the metal framework that has covered the historic tower for almost six years was handed to Goode yesterday at a ceremony in the City Hall Courtyard - which by the way is still encased in fencing and scaffolding - he held it high above his head. And when Deputy Commissioner Peter K. Aborn reached out to hold the pipe for him while the ceremony continued, Goode yanked it back.

An apparently deranged man who scaled scaffolding outside City Hall yesterday brought Center City bustle to a standstill for about 40 minutes. At first, the half-naked man, identified by police as Juan Valentin, 24, of North Philadelphia, was a minor diversion for passersby at Juniper and Market streets on the east side of City Hall. Shortly before 11 a.m., he climbed about three stories up the scaffolding, yelling, "I am God!" and "I love you!" to pedestrians. About 15 minutes later, Valentin climbed another three stories and began tossing building materials to the street below.

Is Philadelphia ready for a future without the sight of scaffolding on City Hall Tower? After all, we've grown so accustomed to the embarrassed face it puts on our city, have come to consider it the symbol of government's inability to get the job done - whatever the job. What are we going to gripe about if the city actually finishes the tower repairs, and in time to meet its deadline of April? 'Fraid it's time to face up to that as a real possibility. In the last week or so, 15 feet of scaffolding was removed from beneath Billy Penn's statue.

Two painters leaped to windowsills on the 10th floor of a Center City building yesterday after their scaffolding tilted sharply underneath them, authorities said. Firefighters rescued Michael Marlin, 40, of the 3800 block of L Street, and Richard Miller, 28, of the 2500 block of South Seventh Street, from sills of the Bell of Pennsylvania building at Ninth and Race Streets. Neither required hospital treatment, according to Capt. Paul Seaman, a Fire Department spokesman. The painters were lowering their scaffolding about 8 a.m. when it tilted until it was nearly perpendicular to the ground.

For a brief time yesterday, Juan Valentin got more attention than John Wanamaker. Many in the pre-lunch crowd passing the east side of City Hall about 11 a.m. focused on the Wanamaker building across the street on its last day in business. Then Valentin, 24, began a bizarre ascent of the scaffolding on City Hall. For the next 20 minutes or so, Wanamakers' closing was temporarily forgotten by the crowds as they strained to get a better look at the man clinging high to the metal bars and throwing debris to the pavement below.

By Craig Fehrman Rick Santorum's near-miss in Iowa provided a reminder that, for many Republican voters (and not a few candidates), religion and politics overlap. If you need another reminder, though, consider this: The Smithsonian has restored and put on display a weird and fantastic 19th-century book known as the "Jefferson Bible. " That's Jefferson as in Thomas, and this private, personal document offers a useful case study in how politics and Christianity have mixed it up in American history, right up to today.

SAN DIEGO - Scaffolding collapsed on more than a dozen cars at the nation's busiest border crossing Wednesday, injuring at least 11 people and halting all traffic trying to enter from Mexico, authorities said. A construction worker at the San Ysidro crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, was in serious condition, said Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. The others were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, he said. A section of scaffold installed to protect cars from overhead construction collapsed onto eight of the crossing's 24 northbound vehicle lanes shortly before 11 a.m., officials said.

Following Tuesday's earthquake, engineers at Camden's Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital hurried Wednesday to secure the 30-foot Blessed Mother statue - damaged by the quake - in anticipation of the next natural disaster: Hurricane Irene. The earthquake caused the statue to shift, opening up a crack one to two inches wide in the middle. The 15-ton limestone sculpture has stood atop the hospital for 60 years and is a Camden landmark. Scaffolding material arrived at the hospital Wednesday afternoon and a crew worked to assemble it through the evening.

Three workers were injured this morning when a scaffold collapsed at a building site in South Philadelphia, police said. A 40-year-old man was reported in serious condition with head, neck and back injuries at Jefferson University Hospital following the collapse on the 700 block of South 15th Street. Two other workers, ages 28 and 41, suffered lacerations and were in stable condition at the hospital. Police said the scaffolding collapsed about 6:45 a.m. at a rowhouse undergoing reconstruction.

Cee Williams just knew there was something wrong with City Hall. He just couldn't put his finger on it. No, no, nothing political. He looked around the sun-splashed courtyard Friday afternoon. "Something's missing," he ventured. "I don't know what it is, but something's not right. " He cast his critical eye over the white granite facades, dazzling in the light. And then it hit him: no scaffolding. No Erector set of planks and pipes and screwed-together steel steps, no ladders dangling over empty space, no plastic tarps flapping in the breeze, no whine of cleaning machines, no hammering, no entrances blocked, no yellow caution tape, no construction fencing.

Two friends of accused shooter Gerald Ung on Friday gave a Philadelphia jury their versions of the events leading to the Old City shooting of Eddie DiDonato early on Jan. 17, 2010. Neither, however, shed any light on the trial's unanswered question: What started the argument that ended 70 seconds later with Ung, 29, a Temple University law student, critically wounding DiDonato, 24? "I still don't know why all this happened," Joy Keh, a New York news photographer who was visiting Ung, told the Common Pleas Court jury.

The scaffolding is up, girdling the familiar tower of Independence Hall. A decorative scrim, donated by the Friends of Independence and sporting an image of the tower, will soon itself be girdling the scaffolding - a reminder of what lies within and a cover for unsightly construction. The much-needed 14-month renovation of the tower is well under way, and previously unknown facts are revealing themselves - maybe not earthshaking surprises, but surprises nonetheless. Example: For years, architectural stewards at Independence National Historical Park believed that the spindle holding up the tower's stylized pointed weathervane was constructed from two pieces of iron.

The sidewalk along Locust Street near Broad has darkened, and the air smells of fresh-sawn pine planking. Eight levels of scaffolding crept up the north side of the Academy of Music recently, preparation for another summer of maintenance. The building, opened in 1857, was home to the Philadelphia Orchestra for a century, and though the ensemble no longer performs there much, the orchestra still owns it and is responsible for its renovation. Work began in earnest in 1994 and has continued just about every summer.

A friend of Edward DiDonato Jr., victim of an Old City shooting in January, testified Friday that he thought his buddy had been fatally wounded after being shot five times just minutes after leaving a bar. "Eddie told me he was going to die, and I believed him," Seth Webster told the court during a hearing for the man charged in the shooting, Gerald Ung, 28. Ung, a third-year Temple University law student, was arrested in January. Judge David Shuter ordered Ung to stand trial May 7 on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault.

An ironworker doing construction at Temple University's new medical building in North Philadelphia died yesterday morning after accidentally falling about five stories, authorities said. Federal investigators immediately opened a probe of Berlin Steel Construction Co. of Connecticut, which has come under scrutiny in the past for accidental falls. The company did not return calls yesterday. The victim, Drew Mecutchen, 44, of Levittown, was described by a colleague as the father of two teenage sons and a man who was always jovial and polite.