Bridges

Sometimes a theme of a Toastmaster meeting continues to be discussed after the meeting.

In October Hal Huntly suggested “Bridges” as the theme of our meeting. There are just plain old bridges that go over small creeks and rivers that some people may not even notice.  On the other end of the scale are magnificent bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge or the Rialto Bridge in Venice or the Manhattan Bridge.  There are lots of amazing bridges all around the world like the Helix Bridge in Singapore and the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge in Brazil.  There are also (in these political times) efforts to bridge the political gap.  And then there is a nose bridge. And bridges for teeth.  There is a card game called the “Bridge”. Lots of ways to think about this.

During Table Topics lead by Robbie Prohaska besides of talking about bridges like London Tower Bridge, Sundial Bridge, Bridge of Sighs, we uttered about bridge game, jumping off bridges or zip lines, future of transportations, bridge mix candies.

Susan Swope in her introduction as Master Evaluator told us about case study in restorative justice in 2004 about “burning bridge” (Moods Covered Bridge – Perkasie, PA). And after the meeting she sent us several emails with additional information.

The bridge was originally built in 1874. It was burned by six 20-year-old college students who got high one night and thought that it would be fun to set the Moods Covered Bridge on fire. When they set it on fire, they realized that they had done something bad but it was late to save the bridge. However the town held the restorative conference before the case was prosecuted. And when case went to court the six pleaded guilty and the district attorney and the judge agreed on a sentence based on recommendations of the conference participants (IIRP.edu video). Decade on, bridge arsonists still payed for crime (https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/article/20140622/NEWS/306229851).
This is what it looked like from a drone on Sept 24, 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF4N4khbRWw).

One more bridge that we did not discussed but could be mentioned is the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras. It’s a perfect metaphor for disruption in marketing, for the constantly changing dynamics of markets and business. (By the way, the bridge is one of the few replicas of the Golden Gate Bridge.)
The Choluteca bridge, originally constructed in 1930, was rebuilt in 1996. It was state-of-the-art at the time and was built to withstand the high winds and hurricanes. In 1998, Honduras was hit by Hurricane Mitch (a category 5 storm). Honduras was wrecked. Roads were wiped out, there was considerable damage to buildings and every other bridge in Honduras was destroyed. However, the Choluteca Bridge stood its ground and survived in near perfect condition. It was an amazing architectural achievement. But there was one problem, the storm caused the river to carve a completely new path which no longer ran under the bridge.

The bridge quickly became known as “The Bridge to Nowhere”.

Who would have thought that the theme “Bridges” would bring so many interesting topics? Do you have more?

/OF