For Christmas my son and daughter-in-love gave me David McCullough’s wonderful book, The Great Bridge, The Epic Story os the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
I’m already deep within this story of the construction of that magnificent structure that has become an icon of what is New York City. John A. Roebling, the German-American genius who first conceived this wonder, for the time, of suspension bridges, said it would be the greatest engineering feat of the time. He was right.
I’ve driven over the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve walked over the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve been amazed that something so magnificent was built a century and a half ago. And now this book is bringing deeper meaning to the experience of the Brooklyn Bridge.
I can’t help but wonder if this is what our world needs: bridges. Wonderfully designed and conceived suspension bridges that span the abyss between that culture and the other, amazingly designed bridges that connect my side of the argument to yours, high bridges that soar above the current of discontent that separates us. Bridges that, despite our differences, connect me to you, Baptist to Methodist, Catholic to Pentecostal, Christian to Islamic, Believers to those who pray to whom it may concern.
Bridges. Let’s pray for more bridges. We need them. Our civilization may depend on them.
So, here I am on my side of the divide. And there you are on your side of the divide. I’m going to start working on the bridge. Will you work on your side of the bridge. Maybe, God willing, we can meet in the middle.
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