A Bridge Becomes a Moving Force

      Sometimes a word is more than a word, a structure more than a structure.  When it comes to the word bridge, I've witnessed the truth of this concept.  Most bridges don't visibly move, though there are exceptions -- floating bridges, drawbridges, for example.  Most seem to be just solid structures designed to allow movement from one place to another.  But when a bridge captures the imagination, it can become a moving force. 

           
Such is the bridge that occupies much of my time and

thought these days.  We call it the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge.  It is a marvel of community bridging, taking an aging concrete structure that carried vehicle traffic for more than eight decades and transforming it into a garden space hanging above the Rocky Broad River in western North Carolina.

 

            Once just a notion based on a childhood memory, the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge is now home to tall spiky red and yellow cannas reaching above the structure's graceful balustrades into the mountain air.  Across a span of 155 feet, a myriad of plants and flowers flourishes in raised stone-walled beds, competing for attention along a winding pathway.  The sights and scents of roses and other fragrant plants invite bees and birds and butterflies as well as people.  One bed features medicinal, fragrant, ornamental and culinary herbs.

            On the bridge's east end, a pathway from the Town Hall leads visitors through a garden space of plants and trees, then under an iron archway above open gates, then onto the bridge itself.  A nearby bench invites a restful stop to look out over the river where ducks and geese and even kayakers might be paddling by in the cool water that tumbles down from the mountains above.

           

How has all this come to be in just three short years?  One man's memory of trips to the Bridge of Flowers in Massachusetts became the vision of a group of dreamers.  These community volunteers believed the decommissioned Rocky Broad Bridge Number 7 could also become a garden that might itself create memories to inspire another generation.

      
Their belief has drawn an entire community together.  Individuals and local businesses donated seed money to explore the possibilities.  An architectural firm was engaged to draw up a plan.  A state fund to preserve the bridge itself, managed by the Town of Lake Lure, provided further support for the gardens that have given new life to the bridge. 

            Throughout the process, the bridge has proved itself a connection among the various communities in the Hickory Nut Gorge where it is located.  As needs arose, volunteers stepped forward to donate time, talent, money and expertise.  Creative collaboration found solutions to problems,  keeping momentum building through the preparation of the bridge for its new purpose.   Then, in April 2013, shovels turned the earth and enthusiastic volunteers nestled plants into their new homes. 

          
     Now the flowers are blooming, visitors are strolling through the gardens.  Having come together to create this garden connection, residents are devising complementary concepts.  A coffee shop has opened on one end of the gardens and plans are being discussed for other development in conjunction with the gardens planned for the west end of the bridge.  This is a place of ideas and imagination.

     In the case of the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, it is clearly much more than just a structure that allows passage across a river.  It is now a beautiful catalyst for collaboration and creativity, for unity and innovation.  It is that moving force that a bridge can become.

 

Thanks to Bill Miller for leading the effort to turn his childhood memory into a dream that has become a reality.

Photos by Mike Lumpkin