The Globe’s Point – The ‘Sinkhole Bus’ lives

Written By Globe Editorial Staff

Last Monday, the City of Pittsburgh was shaken to its core, though arguably, in a good way.

Last Monday was the birth of the Sinkhole Bus.

Everyone should know about Sinkhole Bus by now, but if you happened to be asleep for the past 10 days or so, right smack dab in the middle of the Monday morning commute, a Pittsburgh Port Authority bus was swallowed up by a sinkhole at 10th and Penn by the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

In last week’s paper, we published a glorious photo of the bus sticking out of the sinkhole, taken by our lovely and talented News Photo Editor, Jared Murphy.

The infamous Sinkhole Bus, which looked fabulously silly with its front wheels extended up toward the sky, was instantly memed by all of Pittsburgh.

We thought the memes would stop after one day. We should’ve known better.

With Halloween closing out the tail end of the week, The Sinkhole Bus was immortalized as a party-favorite Halloween costume. We’d like to extend a special shoutout to the individual responsible for parading around the South Side, wearing their surprisingly accurate cardboard costume, squatting down every so often at the immense enjoyment of passing motorists.

The event was also the subject of several promotions at Pittsburgh businesses, such as the Sinkhole Sundae offered by Millie’s or the Sinkhole Bus cupcakes sold by Oakmont Bakery.

Heck, there’s already a Sinkhole Bus Christmas ornament that’s been made and ready for sale.

It was a time of pure fun, spurred on by the fact that no one at the sinkhole site was injured. Perhaps though, the fun was an escape from the inevitable traffic delays caused by the sinkhole’s needed repair over the next several months.

We recognize that it’s been a great time, but we also recognize that Sinkhole Bus is bound to fade from our memories. We hope though, that Sinkhole Bus lives on in tales told to our children and grandchildren, and that it can always be a heartwarming memory in this city’s history.