(erielack) OT: The Bridgekeeper

[Michael Sheehy <njnyrr_@_optonline.net>]

Not necessarily Erie/ E-L (OK it's the Hackensack River Bridge, if you
want...) but I found this story so full of holes it isn't even funny.

Besides trains- and other things- I enjoy urban legends. It's amazing what
some people try to pass off as truth, or believe to be true...I know it's a
parable but even so...

Story is slightly disturbing, though...

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/drawbrid.htm

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"There was once a bridge that spanned a large river. During most of the day
the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with
the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the
bridge. But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the
bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing the train to
cross it.
A switchman sat in a shack on one side of the river where he operated the
controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed.

One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to
come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and
caught sight of the train lights. He stepped onto the control and waited
until the train was within a prescribed distance. Then he was to turn the
bridge. He turned the bridge into position, but, to his horror, he found the
locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely in position, it
would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This
would be a passenger train with MANY people aboard.

He left the bridge turned across the river and hurried across the bridge to
the other side of the river, where there was a lever switch he could hold to
operate the lock manually.

He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could
hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned
backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the
pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's
strength.

Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack, he
heard a sound that made his blood run cold.

"Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to
look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But
the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge
in time..

The man almost left his lever to snatch up his son and carry him to safety.
But he realized that he could not get back to the lever in time if he saved
his son.

Either many people on the train or his own son - must die.

He took but a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely and swiftly
on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken body thrown
mercilessly into the river by the on rushing train. Nor were they aware of
the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging to the locking lever
long after the train had passed. They did not see him walking home more
slowly than he had ever walked; to tell his wife how their son had brutally
died.

Now, if you comprehend the emotions that went through this man's heart, you
can begin to understand the feelings of Our Father in Heaven when He
sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life.

Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to
darken when His Son died? How does He feel when we speed along through life
without giving a thought to what was done for us through Jesus Christ? "


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