Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bridging the Gap


I've always been fascinated by bridges.
I once had the "brilliant" idea of photographing all the bridges over the River Clyde, from source to estuary and writing an illustrated book telling the story of each bridge. (Some of them are pretty old, it has to be said.)
I gave up the idea when I realised that it is almost impossible to say which of the small tributaries that come together near Abington is the real source of the Clyde and also when I realised I couldn't be bothered doing all the research that would be necessary.
There are plenty of bridges in South Korea. It is, after all, a very mountainous country. Seoul itself has something like 27 bridges spanning the Han River- some of them quite impressive feats of engineering.
We came across the construction of a new bridge on our journey towards the border with North Korea and I managed to snap a few pictures from the window of our fairly fast-moving bus. (Hence the blurring in the foreground.)
I wanted the pictures because it seemed to me that this unfinished bridge was a symbol of our developing partnership.
In so many areas of life - not least in the Christian Church - there is a desperate need to tear down dividing walls and at the same time to build connecting bridges.

No comments: