Two Bridges

I’ve been jolted into a time spiral into the early 20th century because I became interested in the Skewed Pony Truss bridge of my youth that crossed Spring Creek, about a half mile down the road (to the west) of where I grew up.? That bridge along with another in Greene, Iowa, have been powerful memory tokens of my childhood.

The bridge in Greene is also gone. The one over Spring Creek was eliminated, and the bridge in Greene was replaced by a concrete bridge, necessary, but not at all the vehicle of nostalgia for which one might have hoped; concrete is too clean and sterile. This bridge in Greene crossed the Shell Rock River on Traer Street. My grandparents bought a home just south of it in 1960 and very near the intersection of N. High Street where they lived, stands the old stone Church of the Brethren, now almost completely covered in vines. Go inside, past the swarm of bees, there is a table with a Sunday bulletin that lists my great-uncles in various capacities of service. I could turn around and just see their shadows out of the corner of my eye.

When you head down this path (I’d say “road,” but I don’t want to confuse you) all sorts of questions arise mostly around the word, “Why?” Why did they do this, why did they do that? Both invite endless speculation that leads to more “why” questions and a deepening spiral of interest that is too vast for one person to put into words considering the also vast causal array of different choices, consequences, possibilities, and probabilities that compose the fabric of living.?

So, I go with what I can remember like my grandfather going downtown to get the mail. Crossing the bridge. Stopping at the power plant by the dam to talk with his friends or kin. Me, climbing on the guardrail (two horizontal pipes) while the water rushed below. Reluctantly stepping back because Grandpa told me to.? Gently, but firmly, or perhaps just “firmly.”?

The Shell Rock River is wide, and the bridge is long and spindly, and for such a long bridge, 250 feet, without any support piers, has a surprising dead-load capacity of 30 tons. This isn’t something I can remember, but I discovered it, like I did with the Skewed Pony Truss Bridge because governments hold on to these sorts of things.

Many towns in the midwest have their original main streets “hollowed out” as populations have shifted. Viewing the scars of the passage of time on a vacant building is almost a paranormal event while using the pedestrian 360-degree photos provided by Google along with the satellite photos that can now be compared with those aerial photos from decades that have “slipped the surly bonds of earth.”(1)???

Studying the movements of people is intimately connected with genealogy as I think about “my” people (or as you think about “your” people.) Why do people move about? Why do they stay? Why would someone insist on staying on Mt. Saint Helens(2), despite knowing that an eruption was imminent?? My grandfather ran away from home to join the army during WWI. I can only imagine the feeling of need that would have led him to leave home in order to hold the future (maybe it has something to do with birth order in a large family and the drive to take control of your life, only to return “home” again. And again. Maybe it’s about love and marriage. Or the knowledge that life is fleeting while the world is passing by.)????

What a horribly magnificent emotion.?

Some people seek out distance, others are forced into it. As much as we might seek opportunity, the desire for a rooted place can be very strong, or maybe we just get tired of moving. Having had such the privilege to stay or to leave my whole life, I’ve had a hard time working through the status of a refugee willing to cross a desert, or risk their life on an ocean and the uncertainty of making any meaningful connection to people and places who may or may not be welcoming; a people who are willing to send a person back to the beginning only to have them go through the journey again.?

There’s a bridge for you. At one moment in history, we need a bunch of people. At another moment we want to be selective, even harsh. Iron truss bridges helped to ease the burden of transportation making farming and industry more efficient and productive. Now, we take them away or replace them with something low-maintenance that doesn’t need a coat of paint. Ever.?

I find myself desperate to hold on to some memories for more than nostalgia alone, driven by the potential meaning of a narrative, my version of a “Manifest Destiny” and fate that satisfies a lingering fear and the question of a “now what” that is easily mistaken for a “why now?”??

Asking the right questions is very important.???

Footnotes:

1) ?“High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. 1941

?2) https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/mount-st-helens-1980-eruption-changed-future-volcanology