Covered Bridge

Through the Bridge

My home town of East Fairfield was home to a rare and beautiful piece of architecture: a wooden covered bridge. Located literally a stone's throw from my backyard, it was always a great place to explore and play as a kid. There was an air of mystery to it. It was old. It was dark. It was downright creepy. Even at noon on a bright summer day, walk on the creaking wood to the middle of the bridge and see nothing buy a few shards of light spiking through the cracks and splinters in the bridge. The darkness was scary enough, but the instability of the bridge definitely added some panic to the experience. No cars had been allowed over it in decades, and even crossing it on a bike seemed daring. All the candy in the world would never have been enough to bribe me to go anywhere near that bridge at night. My fear of heights didn't help. In reality, the bridge probably wasn't more than a 15 feet over the river it crossed, but in the dark all you could hear was the water passing underneath, and I'd watched the movie Cliff Hanger enough times to fear falling to my death more than most kids probably do.  

The members of the town eventually realized that the bridge was a danger, and rather impractical, as only foot traffic could pass through it. And so they hauled the bridge, in its entirety, away to be repaired. While keeping portions of the original structure, the bridge got a major face-lift. Plenty of new wood, nails and hard work resulted in a new bridge sturdy enough to hold cars, bikes and people.  

This photo here is of the new, renovated bridge, and it looks great. I dare say I might even be comfortable crossing this bridge at night, or at least dusk.