There's Something About Bridges

     I can't say what it is, but there is something about bridges.  I like bridges and I almost always take a picture of a bridge if I come across it on one of my adventures.  I have thought about it a little and I have come to believe that it has something to do with overcoming obstacles.
     I recently visited Lewisburg PA.  There was an antique mall there that I wanted to visit.  After walking around the mall, I left to return to my car.  I saw a small park just down the street.  In the center of the park was a stone with a plaque attached to it.  It was a memorial to the citizens of Lewisburg who answered the call to serve in World War One.  Next to the park was a rail road bridge across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
     The bridge was no longer in use.  The approach to the bridge was crumbling and there was a barrier across the entrance to prevent access.  The steel superstructure was rusted and the road bed was collapsing.  It was beautiful.  Standing on the bank, I could imagine the magnitude of the challenge spanning the river.  The piers stood proud in the water, supporting the weight of the crumbling bridge.  It was easy to see how magnificent this bridge once was.
     I sat on the bank of the river thinking about all the trains that have crossed the span and the years that it stood, carrying people and commerce on its decks.  I was viewing the bridge from a park built to remember the service men of World War One.  It has been almost one hundred years since World War One.  The war ended in November 1918.  There is no one alive today that fought in that war.  It is not easy to imagine what it was like for a farm boy from the middle of Pennsylvania.    He had never been more than twenty miles from his home and now he had to cross an ocean and fight a war.  I am here now and have the life I do because men from Lewisburg answered the call to serve.  They were a bridge to the future.