Coffin Bridge…

Coffin Bridge…
Build What You Need

I realize that I am posting this literary pearl on April Fool’s Day. Nevertheless, I am not playing any pranks on my readers. My last essay was about the poem, The Bridge Builder.

The Bridge Builder.

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

Everything that I wrote about one of my favorite poems was true. However, this essay addresses the rest of the story of the actual bridge. In my first article, I used a different photo than the one that I am using for this essay. While it is the same bridge in Scotland, the season of the year was autumn not the spring as it was in the other photo.

The Bridge in autumn

This bridge is just over 300-years old. It took over a half year to build. It was completed in the fall of 1717. This stone bridge is located in Carrbridge, which is a village of less than a thousand residents in the Scottish Highlands. The word, Carr, comes from the Gaelic term for an area containing a bog. In Scotland, the wetlands form peat bogs. Hence, the name means a bridge in a bog area.

Early in the 18th century, Scots found it difficult to move around that particular area near Inverness in the Highlands due to the River Dulnain. That problem haunted the locals until the local clan chief, Brigadier-General Alexander Grant, hired a local mason to build a bridge across the River Dulnain at Lynne of Dalrachney. The building of the bridge took about a half of a year to complete. However, in November 1717, the bridge was finished.

Carrbridge still remains the oldest bridge still standing in the Scottish Highlands. While it is a beautiful bridge, it serviced the locals. It was often called the Packhorse or Coffin Bridge. Before the erection of the bridge, it was difficult to get locals who had died, to their burial place at the Duthil Church cemetery on the other side of the River Dulnain.

Coffin Bridge

In addition, this 300-year old bridge has functioned well as a bridge for human and packhorse traffic, but it has held up well in spite of Mother Nature.

Winter ice

The bride has also endured many spates, which is the Scottish term for a flood.

This brings this essay full circle. The story of the bridge began in my baby book, I memorized it in my senior year at Mt. Lebanon High School, and, in my twilight years of my life, I am aware and honored to be the builder of a bridge…I am building my bridge for my granddaughters and their classmates in two schools in Taunggyi, Myanmar. I love those students as much as another bridge builder.

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

However, my journey of dealing with bridges will continue with my next essay about a bridge too far. This essay, about the Coffin Bridge, I want the world to read. The essay about a bridge too far is meant for only one reader.