The I-95 live cam is the sleeper hit of the season
There just must be something about hard hats, yellow vests and really big trucks.
There’s new must-see TV in the Philadelphia region. It’s nothing streaming on Netflix, not any star-studded offering out of New York or L.A.
Instead, it’s a lot of little guys in yellow vests walking around and working heavy machinery on a construction site in Northeast Philly. There’s no high drama, no close-ups, no narration. Just action — constant, steady, sure. Almost hypnotic. And we can’t seem to look away.
It’s the I-95 reconstruction cam. At lunchtime Tuesday, the first workday after a long weekend, 3,000 viewers were on the state site.
In taverns with multiple screens, the I-95 reconstruction has been playing right beside the Phillies and other major sporting events of the day. It’s seized the social media imagination and become a part of our daily discourse.
“Sorry @QuintaBrunson,” tweeted Sen. Bob Casey, “but there’s a new hottest show about Philadelphia.”
The I-95 bridge story began with the tragic death of truck driver Nathaniel Moody and quickly became a massive transportation disruption to a major East Coast artery as well as a serious loss of income for many small businesses.
But the response, as Gov. Josh Shapiro says, shows “what it looks like when the ingenuity of Delco meets the grit of Philly.” In other words, locals got to work — and got a cheering section.
Shapiro announced the state was going to live cam the reconstruction last week. PennDot safety press officer Krys Johnson said it’s given people an unprecedented opportunity to see a major project like this one and their tax dollars at work.
» READ MORE: How to watch the I-95 construction livestream at Philadelphia collapse site
“Now you see everybody mobilizing and getting to work — engineers designing it and guys out there actually working to build it. To get this sucker open,” said Johnson. “It’s just really something, and I think it’s just tapped into this Philadelphia thing. They get it. They’re looking at their home.”
Johnson said they had it on at Lloyd and at Les and Doreen’s Happy Tap, two of her local pubs in Fishtown.
“More people started watching when they said it was only going to take two weeks,” said Happy Tap bartender Bill Coburn on Tuesday. “Everybody thought it was going to take months.”
At Xfinity Live!, the I-95 live feed has played to enthusiastic audiences, especially those big trucks hauling into action. In addition to repair watch parties and big screen coverage during all hours, the venue has come up with a new ogler’s menu including a loaded nachos tower, a stacked quesadilla, boneless wings, toasted ravioli, and its Beastmode Burger.
Shapiro has become one of the live cam’s biggest fans.
“I must confess, I’m completely addicted to the live stream,” he said to reporters Tuesday. “I want to open it up on my phone, my iPad when I’m in the truck. I look at it first thing in the morning [and] at night.”
The governor marveled at the workers’ teamwork — “like a synchronized swim match or something.”
He sounded as jazzed as a monster truck fan: “It pumps me up, and it should pump up all of us to know that these guys are out there doing this hard work every day.”
He — along with the rest of Citizens Bank Park — watched the feed on Phanavision at Tuesday’s Phillies game.
He’s not the only one on social media who can’t stop talking about it.
“I think I need to go to art school because there is 100% an MFA thesis to be made about the art generated by Philadelphians using the I-95 construction cam footage,” wrote Clare (@missclare).
One Twitter user (@philadoughphia), like many others, seemed mesmerized by the feed.
“There’s a tiny bulldozer zooming around, and two dozenish tiny men in tiny safety vests doing nothing but watching the tiny bulldozer. I love this,” she tweeted.
“This is better than the aquarium,” she added.
Another tweeted that he finds the feed therapeutic, “like watching a baby eagle cam.”
Apparently it’s how lots of people start their day.
A few days ago, Twitter user @chrisoIIey noted, “It’s not even 8 AM and there are 1.6K people in Philadelphia watching the I-95 live feed.”
It’s even crept into the more intimate parts of our lives. One tweeter suggested viewing the feed as a possible first date activity. Someone else already had that idea; she said she was watching it with her crush. Another shuddered to imagine its likely impact on online dating:
And of course this is Philly, so there’s always a joker in the crowd.
But then Shapiro announced the roadway will be passable by this weekend. Great news! There’s just one thing about all that speedy progress.
What is everybody going to watch when we’re finally without the live cam?
Staff writer Tom Fitzgerald contributed to this story