Written by Jesús Torres
Historically, bridges have served us to intertwine. They are and have been tools for the progress of our communities.
A bridge has meant being able to move products for human consumption from areas rich in development to less favored zones or to be able to visit a loved one.
Bridges mean mobility. Mobility for humankind has meant transit of thoughts and ideas, mobility is the cornerstone of our intellectual development.
Jorge Drexler, Uruguayan singer, in his song "Los Puentes" mentions:
Let's toast to the clairvoyant, open, awakened, traveling minds of the human vine that grows and climbs and cracks the walls, letting beam after beam of light into the dark.
This clairvoyance he alludes to refers to two subjects: the one who builds a bridge and the one who crosses it, a poetic complicity through a noble tool such as a bridge. Crossing bridges to carry a kilo of sugar, a hundred books, a kiss or an idea is a ray of light in the darkness of the deficiencies of human communities.
As humanity has evolved, bridges have done their own thing, responding differently to the needs of their users. They ceased to be erected with rocks and began to be done with steel or concrete.
The urbanization of communities has made our living, working and leisure places, as well as the routes we take from one point to another, much simpler and less dangerous, as it used to be two or three centuries ago.
Before continuing, I will ask you to make a small reflection. Think about a bridge. Remember an old bridge, and why it is built. The oldest one you can remember. Possibly one made of rocks. What is underneath? We think of a river, perhaps; a lake or a cliff. What you readers might imagine has one thing in common among all the answers: the bridge is over a natural entity. Something whose strength or existence we cannot easily control.
Let us return to the present day.
Bridges now respond to the reality of the 21st century. In many countries of the global north, and in all countries of the global south, the creation of bridges has been developing along with the evolution of cities.
Industrial revolution, capitalism, creation of the automobile, poor urban planning and inefficient public administrations have been some of the factors that have made it inconceivable to travel within a city in the global south and many in the global north without an internal combustion vehicle.
Bridges, in other words, take us away from roads.
Now, the uncontrolled natural entity that humans cannot easily master, the reason bridges began their existence centuries ago, has been displaced and avenues with a constant flow of vehicles take their place.
Now kisses and ideas do not travel over a bridge. Now environmental problems are being embodied on what were once our allies against the ferocity of nature.
What do we want to believe, is the use of the car so normalized that it is easier for us to accept it as an uncontrollable entity? Is crossing the River Thames or the River Danube without extra tools as difficult as crossing the widest avenue in the world, Avenida Rivadavia, in Buenos Aires, Argentina? As humans, are we equally at the mercy of both an automobile and a riverbed? The answer is no.
The existence of a pedestrian bridge within a city is not a trigger for environmental or social problems, it is only a symptom of our ignorance of the course that the evolution of our communities has taken.
A city that prioritizes the mobility of cars over other means is destined to have environmental pollution due to the excessive use of its vehicles, is much more dangerous, segregates, it is classist and capacitist, and creates a population more dependent on moving around with cars, which means having a potentially less healthy population.
And the bridges? They are just a reminder of all that has been established.
Kisses no longer need bridges to reach their target. Bridges should not be necessary today, and will cease to be necessary when, within public administrations, raise awareness of the environmental, social and economic impact that it means to the population to believe that the automobile is the central axis of the creation of a city.
Let's stop normalizing the existence of the city as a transit entity for us, and let's live it as a meeting point.
Live your city.
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