If you stand on the bridge on North Drive – the road that overlooks the bike trail’s switchbacks coming down by the spillway north of the penitentiary – you’ll get a “nice” view, if you will, of Smithfield.
You can drive by the century-old property right along Rice Street or Cliff Avenue, of course, taking in the rotten, sulfur-like whiff. But if you get out of dodge just a tad, beyond its legacy footprint, you’ll get a better perspective of what a sprawling 130 acres looks in the valley — where 20,000 hogs go to die daily.
But not for much longer. The next century is going to hold so much more than that…