Ghost Bridge 14

Description:

You’ll want to know how it is we have a bridge that disappears. In 1851, with nothing to show for a year’s effort but a small bag of sparkly dust he told people was gold but was just sparkly dust, Jubal Plot gave up. He waded out into the American River just west of Hastings Creek firmly of a mind to float himself into oblivion. The river thought otherwise and ran him noggin-first into the leftmost abutment of the bridge the Rotarians had just built near Salmon Falls. Now, there’s never been anything in this world sturdier or more likely to knock some sense into you than a Rotarian-built bridge, be it wood, stone or even some manner of alloy. In our case, Jubal’s head got dented by a stone bridge, ruining his poetic homage to Bill Shakespeare’s Ophelia. He paddled to the river’s edge, muttered a curse on that bridge and any who crossed it, then collapsed in a concussed heap. Some hours later he woke to a powerful headache and a couple gold nuggets just a-settin’ there. Temporarily wealthy, he got liquored up and became a dentist. He forgot all about his curse and, as the story goes, this made the disappear. It also remained exceptionally sturdy, enough that it occasionally reappears, which is how come it’s called the Ghost Bridge. Only it’s not a ghost bridge, it is just really well built