A dark umbra of dread seemingly hangs over it…

I’ve done some more thinking on what my client said yesterday, the story he told me about being struck with terror on a dark night’s drive many years ago. A drive that left him permanently bound by the fear of certain elevated stretches of road for the remainder of his life. That late night drive was when he and his wife traversed a most notorious passage, one almost universally condemned to infamy. So what is it about that bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay? Yes, it has a dark history, including accidents, construction deaths and the many who have jumped from its spans. And so does the Golden Gate Bridge, but that famous structure seems to lack the ability to ensnare random passing motorists in a web of sheer terror. A dark umbra of dread seemingly hangs over the magnificent metal monstrosity that is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Most can drive across it unimpeded, oblivious to the suffocating panic that strikes down the unlucky few. The real question here is how does something like this happen? Generally, based on what I’ve heard and read, specific phobias often stem from childhood experiences. For example, being attacked or bitten by a dog can lead to a phobia of dogs. Fear of dentists, needles, spiders, snakes, clowns and other things almost always come from negative events in childhood. So what of a phobia that strikes adults like a bolt out of the blue? This man was in his early 70’s when the Bay Bridge worked its sinister spell on him. Despite the fact he had been across it many, many times. What turns an ordinary bridge into a highway from hell?

It is interesting that here I am, just two weeks away from walking one of the monster’s spans, and I hear a harrowing story of someone who was once fearless in the face of it. A man who must now rely on another driver and he is compelled to hide his eyes from the sight of those sinuous steel serpents. Unless there is a traffic jam, most spend only a few moments crossing the bridge. But I will be spending much longer there, as my top walking speed these days is being able to cover a mile in about 15 minutes or so. The bridge is roughly four and a half miles long. Many years ago I once covered a mile in eleven minutes, but this time I’ve got a couple of hours to cross, so there will be no need to rush. Regardless, that’s still a very long time to be on an infamous bridge that suddenly envelops certain people in existential soul crushing terror. The friendly, welcoming roadway that was always the gateway to Ocean City and the beach in my childhood is actually a malevolent metal monster that seizes random drivers’ minds and traps them in its reign of terror. I have heard this man’s story in other places, from other unfortunate people. Sometimes it is in relation to other bridges, but often it happens right here on the Bay Bridge. All one need do is to do a web search for “scariest bridge in the US” and you will see for yourself. Soon I will see it up close, that steel monstrosity of the Bay that inflicts gut-wrenching psychological torment on its randomly chosen victims.