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Bridges And Their (Ab-)Uses
One common feature of developed countries is their infrastructure, or their pronounced lack thereof. I believe I have demonstrated this on numerous occasions here on this website.
Need personal examples? Here you go:
As a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, Liebi and I had to travel more than twelve hours to get to each other, although we lived merely on opposite sides of the Middle Atlas Mountains. And yet, the same trip would have taken no more than two hours in a European country. The difference? You guessed it, a tunnel.
In Jordan, I recall jogging over an unfinished bridge in the middle of town, while traffic was piling up before, during, and after rush hour. It certainly made a huge difference to commuters once that bridge had been completed.
Only recently have new bridges been completed here in La Paz. Even so, if the stars are aligned (im-)properly, traffic jams will strike and that lama at the side of the road will march backwards up the hill more quickly than you will move your car toward your destination. An unpaved road in certain places makes the difference between driving at 60 and 15 mph, et cetera, et cetera, you get the idea. Bridges can be a Godsend for people in crowded metropolitan areas.
But back to bridges.
Sadly, bridges also attract a different kind of demographic. Having lived in San Diego for many years, for instance, I know that dozens of people have plunged to their deaths using the Coronado Bridge, the spectacular view of the San Diego downtown skyline quite possibly their final view. San Francisco, even more so with the Golden Gate, is well aware what happens when people seek a fast exit from this life. And you know that if suicides can happen in those two beautiful cities, they certainly can and will anywhere.
The last thing I intend to do is mock depression here. I have known people battling this illness (some ultimately unsuccessful, resulting in their untimely early demise) and am well aware that some people would rather not live at all than under a cloud for the rest of their days. These people caught a bad break in life, and one can only hope that they will fare better in the next one.
That said, a recent suicide attempt here in La Paz defies any imagination.
Here, a young man – let's call him Edgar – recently tried to end his life in style from the newly constructed Puente de las Americas (Bridge of the Americas) here in La Paz. This bridge connects the districts of Miraflores and Sopocachi here in La Paz, both not too far from downtown. Needless to say, the views from the puente are spectacular.
Edgar seemed to agree with this assessment, as he decided to end his life one sad spring morning. Whereas most people in the world see resurrection and feelings of love during this season, Edgar saw death and the end as the only solutions to his problems and made the slow and long walk to the bridge. One jump and everything would be over.
Edgar bid the world a quick ciao and took the 50 meter plunge from the bridge.
His timing was clearly off, as his falling body would crash through the windshield of an oncoming truffi, a shared taxi that can carry up to six people, and sometimes more, this being Latin America.
Long story short: Edgar survived the plunge from the bridge, the truffi was thoroughly damaged, as were a few passengers riding in it, both physically and emotionally. In the end, Edgar was ordered to pay for the truffi, the passengers' injuries, and forced to live after he had closed the chapter on his life in this world.
Some people, no doubt, will make jokes about one's ineptness to end one's life and how that bids for that person's prospects in the future.
Then again, maybe there is such a thing as destiny, and some people weren't meant to die yet. Maybe a bridge wasn't meant to be a weapon, like Edgar had originally viewed it, and meant to connect, in this case Edgar back to the world and the living again.
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