

Nearby, a 30-foot-high replica of a stone megalith bobbed in the river while a mechanical goose sauntered across Memorial Drive.Ī noodle raft, a cheetah, and Oliver Smoot, of course Simmons also called MIT “a blessing and not a burden” and, in the spirit of the day, noted how useful it was to “keep a sense of humor” intact. “We are glad you stayed,” responded Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, in remarks following Reif’s comments. Rafael Reif said he wanted to “thank the city of Cambridge for their generosity for 100 years” and joked that the city resembled a tolerant host enduring the visit of a long-running house guest. “You saw it all, from the brain to the bamboo.”Īt an award ceremony following the crossing, MIT President L.
#Spectacle marks full
“The diversity of the MIT community was on full display,” said John Ochsendorf, professor of civil and environmental engineering and architecture, and a faculty co-chair of the event. Hundreds of alumni marched across at the end of the parade. Neuroscientists transported an 8-foot-high brain model, made out of plywood and set on wheels MIT Libraries staff carried a fabric “river on sticks,” adorned with books and a laptop undergraduates guided a “StrandBeaver,” a massive kinetic sculpture and MIT’s Casino Rueda salsa dancers, a student club, stopped to perform.
#Spectacle marks plus
Simultaneously, a colorful parade of students, faculty, staff, and alumni - plus a robotic cheetah - marched across the bridge, some with large floats in tow. In the river, a festive flotilla of watercraft journeyed across, including an electric hydrofoil craft, a motorized swarm of kayaks, a bamboo raft, and a pedal-powered floating platform in the shape of the dome from MIT’s main building. The “Crossing the Charles” parade and competition, the centerpiece of MIT’s May 7 Moving Day celebrations, took place simultaneously in the water and on the bridge that carries Massachusetts Avenue over the river. In all, hundreds of members of the MIT community on Saturday celebrated the 100 th anniversary of the Institute’s move from Boston into Cambridge, Massachusetts with a unique procession across the Charles River, fueled by humor and creativity. They arrived via water and over land, by raft and hydrofoil, on foot and in experimental vehicles.
