Virginia Beach, VA On our way to Chincoteague to catch a glimpse of the wild ponies, we stopped at the Sea Gull Pier on southern end of the Bay Bridge Tunnel. From the fishing pier we could see a barge floating between the two tunnel entrances that at first glance looked like a third island. A crane on the barge was doing something mysterious, and while we were looking at it and wondering what it was a woman spoke up behind us.

She said that every ten years for two years they replenish the large boulders that line the Bay Bridge Tunnel. Because the tunnel is filled with air it tends to want to float to the surface and so they replace the boulders to keep it submerged. She said her husband was the crane operator and that he uses GPS to determine precisely where to drop each load of stones. Her children were with her on the pier presumably to watch Daddy at work.

I wondered what it might sound like to be driving though the tunnel when the crane released the stones.