The following excerpt is about Ondaatje's character, Nicholas Temelcoff, who worked on the Bloor Viaduct during its construction.
"Nicholas Temelcoff is famous on the bridge, a daredevil. He is given all the difficult jobs and he takes them. He descends into the air with no fear. He is a solitary. He assembles ropes, brushes the tackle and pulley at his waist, and falls off the bridge like a diver over the edge of a boat."
- Michael Ondaatje (In the Skin of a Lion)
