“On Bridges

Bridges have often held a fascination for me and I believe it is because of the part they have played in

my youth. The bridges that crossed small rivers in my hometown were steel structures built above the

road. The load, placed on the bridge by the vehicles crossing it, was on the steel structure above the road as opposed to sunken supports under the bridge holding it up. There were two steel support structures one on either side of the bridge. They were built such that we could run up one end of the bridge’s steel support, walk

across the top and then run down the other side. We were climbing and/or walking on flat steel

beams approximately 10 inches wide that had rivets about two inches apart on each side of the beam. At the top of the structure, we were about 10-12 feet above the road and, of course, the signswould warn people to, ‘Stay off the Bridge’. They were a constant challenge but a usual way

of bridge travel for us, as youth. When I made my first trip to San Francisco, as a serviceman, and saw the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, I was awe struck. Fortunately, I was stationed at the Presidio as an MP and had a daily view of the bridge for almost two years. It was some time later, as I matured mentally, that I really contemplated the significance of bridges. It may have been after watching the show, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” that I realized how important bridges were to the movement of military troops and supplies. In converse, the importance of the destruction of bridges in order to prevent the movement of those units. In primitive times rivers and huge ravines were natural barriers to protect one tribal community from another. As commerce and a higher order of society were established the rivers and ravines were unwelcome barriers and bridges were built to span them to allow interaction which would be beneficial to their communities. Pioneer stories tell about the difficulty that they had in crossing rivers; sometimes having to travel several miles along the river to find a place shallow enough to cross without losing life or property. They also tell of the need to spend several precious days descending a steep ravine with their wagons and then ascending the other side. Had there been a bridge, they would have lost very little time. Bridges play such a very important roll in our

society. We probably seldom think about the planning and expense that went into the construction of a bridge. In many cases workers lives were a part of the sacrifice to complete a bridge. I love the poem, 

‘The Bridge Builder’

by Garrett Boon –

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,

“You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-

Why build you a bridge at the eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head:

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today,

A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”

The poem is not only about a physical structure but of building a better way of life for those descending from us. The old man was a pioneer and as he settled he built bridges, roads, railroads, schools and communities for you and me who came ‘his way’ maybe generations later. Have you ever thought about other kinds of

bridges. There are people who are ‘bridges’ that bring other people together. There are ‘people bridges’ in families; those who make peace and nurture greater love by their tender ways. They tend to make smooth the ravines and rivers of differences that sometimes tend to separate brothers and sisters. Then there are bridge builders between generations, those who make it possible to bridge the gap between we and our ancestors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is such a bridge builder and thank goodness for the great

work being done to bridge those gaps. The gaps of centuries and world wide distances, oceans, language barriers and sometimes plain indifference to the ‘eternal family’ cause. These are data or information bridges that make it possible for us to bridge the gap between this world and the next; between the living and the deceased. We must thank Heavenly Father every day for all the bridge builders. They who build the bridges that span the rivers, ravines, oceans, data and the human gulfs that exist in this wonderful but complex world we live in. Christ, himself, was the ultimate bridge between us and our return to the place that we came from.”

-Emil