Flat Rock Bridge: a Rededication to Things Much Larger than Ourselves

This past June I had the distinct pleasure of attending a rededication of a pedestrian suspension bridge we civil engineering students designed and built in 1983. The bridge is sixty meters long and spans Fall Creek near the Cornell Botanic Gardens; it is over-designed, weighs a ton, and undulates like a whale when you walk over it. But it's there, still there, strong and accommodating a hundred or so joggers and walkers and cyclists who cross it every day, rain or sleet or snow or shine.

Importantly, it's my first and lasting memory of being part of a team that created something much much larger than ourselves. The mythical team where each member makes a distinct and gap-filling contribution, where there is no room nor time for individual profit, where the final product literally can't materialize without everyone pulling their weight, and where the outcome is more than could have been imagined. As if the ignorance and curiosity and blind ambition of students created the space for it to happen.

The dedication was for improvements to the handrail and deck surface, conceptually designed and rebuilt by the Class of 2023 and Carpenters Local 277, and coordinated by Charles Trautmann . A gargantuan effort that involved over one hundred people. This day in June, fifty people - including grandchildren of Mrs. Stevens, the original donor of our 1983 project - walked the bridge, toasted the bridge, toasted each other, and talked of what the past and current bridge projects mean to us.

By my calculation, over the next forty years this new bridge will accommodate another 1.5 million or so crossings. Hats off to you, Charlie and the Class of 2023, for keeping the spirit of "much larger than ourselves" alive.

Photos here (credits: Charissa King-O'Brien and Jeannette Little)