|
Two old engineers were talking of their lives and boasting of their
greatest projects. One of the engineers explained how he had designed
the largest bridge ever made.
We built it across a river gorge, he told his friend. It was
wide and deep. We spent two years studying the land, and choosing
designs. Then we hired the best people and designed the bridge, which
took another five years. We contracted the largest engineering firms
to build the structures, the towers, the tollbooths, and the roads
that would connect the bridge to the main highways. Under the road
level we had trains, and a special path for cyclists. That bridge
represented years of my life.
The second man reflected for a while, then spoke. One evening me and
a friend threw a rope across a gorge, he said. Just a rope,
tied to two trees. There were two villages, one at each side. At
first, people pulled packages across that rope with a pulley and
string. Then someone pulled across a second rope, and built a foot
walk. It was dangerous, but the kids loved it. A group of men then
rebuilt that, made it solid, and women started to cross, everyday,
with their produce. A market grew up on one side of the bridge, and
slowly that became a large town, since there was a lot of space for
houses. The rope bridge got replaced with a wooden bridge, to allow
horses and carts to cross. Then the town built a real stone bridge,
with metal beams. Later, they replaced the stone part with steel, and
today there's a suspension bridge standing in that same spot.
The first engineer was silent. Funny thing, he said, my
bridge was demolished not long after it was built. Turns out it was
built in the wrong place and no-one wanted to use it. Some bastard
had thrown a rope across the gorge, a few miles further downstream,
and that's where everyone went.
|