Unrealized dangers – the edge of death
The world seems to harbor some dangerous things that are, for the most part, unrealized and unseen. Few would recognize that such dangers even exist, especially during an event that is fun and seemingly carefree – a simple 10K run or walk. By contrast, the dangers to be found in the wilderness are often self-explanatory and some are quite obvious. But the idea of someone seeking out the Bay Bridge (or any other bridge) in order to throw themselves from its highest point is, I think, lost on most people. Until the Key Bridge fell, it never once occurred to me that anyone would jump from the Bay Bridge. In my mind that structure was blemish free, untouched by the stain of death, sadness and misery. It was the joyous and welcoming gateway to Ocean City. Except that it was anything but. When I was in Kenya, even though I was just a child, I knew that lions and other predators sometimes killed and ate people. And in those cases, no attempts were made to try and cover up those killings, as is done with so many deaths associated with metal and concrete monsters. In fact, there are plenty of books, tv shows and a few movies about furry and scaly flesh and blood killers, many of which I have in my own personal library. For records of the carnage facilitated by the concrete and steel kind, one must do some a fair amount of online detective work. Especially if the deadly structure isn’t famous, as is the Golden Gate metal monster, and the Tampa Bay demon and the combined decades of bloodshed.
Of course, a bridge only presents a danger to certain people, and only they might end up as victims. But, predatory animals also target certain prey, sometimes being very exclusive in what they hunt. It is often said that predators seek out the weak, the very old, very young and the sick. In general this is true, as it is far easier for an attacker to capture and overcome prey that is less likely to be able to run away or fight back. In that regard, the monster also lures in the weak and the sick, so to speak. Those who are downtrodden, depressed, hopeless and those who suffer from mental illness are the steel serial killer’s “type”. They can no longer fight back against the urge to escape whatever torment and despair they are experiencing. Those people are the monster’s chosen prey, as they are drawn to its edge of death in the hopes of ending their suffering. Those who are not so afflicted would be in no danger while walking across a bridge, at least not in that sort way. Most everyone there on the bridge that morning would have been in the second category, not only unaware of the danger but simply not of the mind to give in to it. But, had there been someone that fit the profile of a metal monster’s victim present that day, it’s likely that the small army there on the bridge would have acted as a deterrent to a potential death. An intended victim would have realized that their access to the monster’s fatal ledge was severely restricted and heavily guarded, and they would have likely avoided heeding that call. At least for that particular day, anyway…. Not but a few days after I took that walk a woman was saved from a lethal plunge into the frigid waters of the bay (or from splattering onto the base of one of the monster’s piers). Apparently she had stopped her car at the top of the span and was making her way to the monster’s ledge of death when she was apprehended by police. I was able to approach that very same ledge and hold my phone out over it to take photos and videos. No one tried to stop me because I do not fit the profile of a metal monster’s usual victim. There were some other people looking down over the edge, but most stayed away from that division point between life and death.
Essentially, in a nutshell, those dangerous animals and that dangerous bridge were treated with the utmost respect with regards to the mayhem they are capable of causing. Dealing with known killers, and keeping said killers separate from their potential victims is very much a thing, both in the wilds of Africa and on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (as well as many other bridges).
In the 19th century the man-eaters of Tsavo were a pair of male lions that killed up to one hundred railroad workers in East Africa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters
People were utterly terrified of that destructive duo, and the railroad company struggled to complete the line because so many workers quit (those that didn’t get eaten). Eventually the railroad called in a big game hunter to eliminate the killers, which finally put an end to their reign of terror. In the mid 20th century the first span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built. In the early 1970’s, a second span was added to ease traffic congestion. Ever since the first metal monster began its working life as a passageway between the eastern and western shores of Maryland, the death toll between it and its newer span has far eclipsed that of those two flesh and blood killers. The infamous man-eaters of Tsavo are long dead, and their mounted remains can be found in a natural history museum in Chicago. The twin metal monsters of the Chesapeake Bay can be found on US route 50/301 between Annapolis and Stevensville, and they are still claiming victims to this day.
There are plenty of people who are terrified of these steel serpents, and many of them happily pay to be escorted across. Those so fear stricken feel safer knowing that someone else is in control of their safety, as was the case with my family and I as we were being escorted back to our cottage by that armed guard. In another decade or so, the state has plans to retire those deadly structures. They will be replaced by two new spans, one of which might allow for a bike path and walkway. This new monster will be not at all unlike a deadly beast confined to a zoo, where a fence or bars serve to prevent such dangerous creatures from ever coming into contact with anyone. Some sort of physical barrier will be erected on the new bridge to separate the killer from the potential victim, blocking easy access to the ledge of doom. The city of San Francisco and the state of Florida have already caged their once rampaging steel and concrete killers. These days they pose little more danger than those stuffed man-eating lions in that museum exhibit. Only the truly determined will manage to find a way to overcome such obstacles in order to heed the monster’s call to end their lives.