Thursday, November 7, 2013

Scaring away the earthquakes

Somehow I never knew about the story at the time, but I was delighted to read about The Rescue Of The Troll: Bay Bridge's mysterious protector out of hiding

The troll, who has no name, was created and surreptitiously installed in 1989 on a quickly fabricated section of bridge deck that replaced the pieces that collapsed in the Loma Prieta earthquake. He remained out of sight - only bridge workers and boaters could see him on the north side of the span - and cast his magic to protect the bridge and its users. In early September, when the new eastern span opened, the troll was spirited away by ironworkers, who wanted to make sure he was free before demolition of the old span began.

I must have passed under that section of the bridge more than a dozen times over the years, but never saw the troll. Of course, he was small and I was far away and I would have needed a good pair of binoculars to see him.

In some respects, it's best not to see the troll, nor even to know about the troll, as some things are better off that way:

"There's a great deal of mystery surrounding any troll," Goodwin said, "but a special amount of mystery surrounding this troll."

Thank you troll, may you have a safe and happy retirement.

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