Daily Story Bridge Abutments

Daily Story

Bridge AbutmentsLincoln Reading
“I once knew a good, sound churchman, whom we’ll call Brown who was on a committee to erect a bridge over a dangerous and rapid river. Architect after architect failed, and at last Brown said he had a friend named Jones who had built several bridges and could build this. ‘Let’s have him in,’ said the committee. In came Jones. ‘Can you build this bridge, sir?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Jones. ‘I could build a bridge to the infernal region, if necessary.’ The sober committee were horrified, but when Jones retired, Brown thought it fair to defend his friend. ‘I knew Jones so well,’ said he, and he is so honest a man and so good an architect that, if he states soberly and positively that he can build a bridge to Hades — why, I believe it. But I have my doubts about the abutments on the infernal side.”

Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, War Years, Volume I, p. 61.