A most disturbing sight

For some reason I keep thinking back on something I saw while on a vacation earlier this summer. The first part of my vacation was a visit to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. I went there for the annual Coaster Mania event which was held on a Friday. But once that was over, it was time for the second leg of the trip. Saturday was just a driving day, as my second destination was some five hours away and I was tired out from the previous day. That day was to be used for travel and for me to rest up for what I had planned on Sunday. I was driving south on Interstate 77 (there is the number seven again!) going from Ohio into West Virginia. You tend to not see much on long, boring freeway drives like that one, and exits come and go with a steady monotony. My husband was playing around with something on his phone and not paying much attention to anything else. I had wanted him to drive because I was tired and achy from spending all day at Cedar Point and walking what felt like many, many miles. I even had a blister on one foot. But the arthritis in his hands was bothering him, making it very painful to hold onto the steering wheel for long periods of time, so I took the wheel.

I drove on for some time, endless miles of roadway passing beneath my wheels. I was daydreaming about something, listening to the music I was streaming, when I saw a most unsettling sight just up ahead. As I approached one of so many overpasses, I noticed there was a man standing there at the edge, looking down at the traffic below. This particular overpass lacked the fencing that would keep things from falling – or being thrown – onto the road below. The man was right there, in the center, at the edge, not really doing anything but just standing and staring out over the road. He was behind the edge barrier, but up very close to it. I did not see any vehicle parked nearby, which if on that side would have been noticeable as the edge wall wasn’t very high. In fact, it was low enough that the man’s body was visible from about mid-thigh on up. I quickly said something to my husband and he glanced up and saw the man. Then I said that I thought that was a very strange sight, to which he agreed. He said it looked like the guy was getting ready to jump. I replied that I didn’t think so, that he must have just been waiting for roadside assistance. Surely his broken down vehicle was just out of sight, perhaps on the other side or just off of the overpass…

Driving on, I tried to change the subject of our conversation but I somehow I couldn’t. Especially since my next destination was the New River Gorge Bridge! Yes, that metal monster that has in the past presided over numerous fatal jumps and continues to do so to this day. I told my husband about the terrible reputation that the West Virginia monster has with regards to being a hot spot for jumpers. He did not know all of that, but I don’t think he was surprised. I don’t know, seeing that man on the overpass and being on the way to the tallest, and one of the deadliest bridges in the eastern US was just ultra creepy. It still bothers me when I think about that. I just hope he was simply waiting for a tow and not contemplating the unthinkable. Part of me had thought about reporting it, but at the time I was in a bit of denial. That, and I was afraid my husband would think I was overreacting. In my thinking before the Key Bridge collapse, almost no one (save for the Key Bridge jumper) leaped off a bridge, and so surely no one would ever jump from a middling highway overpass – or would they?