In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with Long Island. It needed a suspension bridge that was 50% longer than any bridge that had been previously built at that time, however, and bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat. They were quick to tell Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.
But Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind for this bridge. It consumed his thoughts and he just knew deep in his heart that it could be done. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge could, in fact, be built.
Father and son had never worked together before but quickly developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles might be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, they hired their crew and began the awesome challenge of building their dream bridge.
The project started well, but after just a few months, a tragic accident on the site eventually took the life of John Roebling. Washington was also injured and hospitalised and left with some brain damage which meant he could not talk, walk or even move.
Of course the naysayers had a field day.
Almost everyone was negative and most felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who had any idea to build the bridge. In spite of his handicap, Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge as his mind was still as sharp as ever despite his handicaps.
It is hard to inspire the people around you when you have limited modes of communication, but Washington was undaunted in his desire to keep the project moving forward.
Suddenly an idea hit him. He could only move one finger, but he decided to make best use of it. Slowly he developed a form of communication with his wife using this finger.
He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was eventually under way again.
For 13 years, Washington gave out instructions by tapping his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today, the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.
This is an amazing example of a man overcoming a terrible physical handicap to achieve an amazing goal due to a never-say-die attitude.
Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.
An amazing story...it reminds me a little of a wonderful film I saw recently called the "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". In this film the main character suffers a stroke that paralyses his entire body, except his left eye. But, using that eye, he was eventually able to blink out his memoir in which he describes the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.
A wonderful film and highly recommended. I've included the trailer for the film below:
It is...as it is.
GuruBob
