The first thing of thought of was my fear of crossing over a bridge. I am able to do it, mostly because I've been forced to in my life, but I'm freaking out the whole time. I don't know when or why this fear started, but I have plenty of examples to back up my fear.
My mom worked for the Wisconsin DOT (Department of Transportation) literally since I was born until this past year, and she therefore was very informed about means of transportation such as bridges. I remember very clearly when the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapsed in August of 2007 that killed 13 people. This incident scared me even more because it showed that a major bridge collapse can occur close to home. I also remember that my mom would come home from work and would tell me about the bridges in Wisconsin that needed to be inspected and possibly changed.
All bridges are are a tiny piece of concrete stretched over a great expanse of water or land. I constantly think, when will it collapse? Will I make it across? every time I go across a bridge. When I'm driving on a bridge, I speed so that I can get over it as fast as possible.
Worse still is biking over a bridge. You can't go as fast as you want most of the time, and one bad turn of the handles can throw you off the edge to your death. This summer I did a charity bike ride and the finish was in Sturgeon Bay. They changed the route this year and made us go over the Sturgeon Bay Bridge. As my luck would have it, the bridge was letting boats through at the time and I was forced to stay on the bridge for almost five minutes, caged in by other bikes and a ton of cars. I was freaking out the whole time and literally peddaled as fast as possible to get off of that death trap.
I feel like I must have been pushed off a bridge in a past life or something, because I honestly cannot pinpoint where my fear of bridges began. No tragic event happened to me, and nothing near my home.
I guess my only option is to simply build a bridge and get over it.
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