There was once a bridge that spanned a large river. During most
of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the
river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass through
freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times each day,
a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways
across the river, allowing the train to cross it.
A switchman sat in a shack on one side of the river where he
operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as
the train crossed.
One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the
day to come, he looked off into the distance through the dimming
twilight and caught sight of the train lights. He stepped onto the
control and waited until the train was within a prescribed
distance. Then he was to turn the bridge. He turned the bridge into
position, but, to his horror, he found the locking control did not
work. If the bridge was not securely in position, it would cause
the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This
would be a passenger train with MANY people aboard.
He left the bridge turned across the river and hurried across the
bridge to the other side of the river, where there was a lever
switch he could hold to operate the lock manually.
He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed.
He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the
lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the
bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked.
Many lives depended on this man's strength.
Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control
shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.
"Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the
bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the
child, "Run! Run!" But the train was too close; the tiny legs would
never make it across the bridge in time..
The man almost left his lever to snatch up his son and carry him to
safety. But he realized that he could not get back to the lever in
time if he saved his son.
Either many people on the train or his own son - must die.
He took but a moment to make his decision. The train sped safely
and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the
tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the on
rushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the
sobbing man, still clinging to the locking lever long after the
train had passed. They did not see him walking home more slowly
than he had ever walked; to tell his wife how their son had
brutally died.