Have you ever been in a situation where you were watching a catastrophe happen, and your brain just shut down? For example, you've left an open can of paint on a ladder, and something, say a cat, brushes it, and the ladder begins slowly falling over. You're across the room, and can't do anything about it, so all you can do is stand there and watch it slowly tip over and fall. Probably you're a bit stunned afterwards as you survey the disaster area, and your only thought is "Well, shit." Or words to that effect.
I couldn't help thinking about that when I read the case of Kellogg Bridge Co. v. Hamilton. Hamilton got a contract to build a bridge over a river in Ohio, they sub-contracted to Kellogg and turned the job over to them, along with what they'd already built. Half-way through building the bridge, an ice flow comes through, knocks out the fakework that had been done, and the entire bridge collapses and washes away.
Reading that, I wondered what it would be like to be the foreman on that job. You've been working for months building this bridge, you come in to work one morning and, perhaps while drinking coffee and poring over schematics, planning the day's work, you hear a crash and look over to see this giant bridge, your life's work for the last few months, collapse and wash down the river. I imagine, were I in his place, my reaction would basically be stunned silence, perhaps punctuated with a "Well, shit." Perhaps a nicely understated "I expect there'll be some trouble about this."
