On the bridge pictured above, I have experienced many adventures. I have fallen off of it, and flipped inside of cars as they’ve tumbled down the steep decline. I’ve also slid down it rapidly, with my nails scraping the pavement trying to grab hold of anything I could.
One time I stepped over the center, and to my horror saw that the incline was almost perfectly vertical. I tried to keep myself from falling, but slipped forward and fell to the bottom, bouncing off cars in the process. I have even sat on the protection of a bubble car and then fallen off of it with my body plummeting toward the ground.
When I was a child we drove over this bridge. Back then, I don’t recall it being anything more than fascinating. My subconscious on the other hand, took the bridge a bit more seriously. That bridge became the source of many nightmares. Over 25 years later, it still haunts me in my dreams.
Last night I watched a video of someone driving over that bridge. Right before they began their decline, I held my breath in anticipation of what was to come. To my relief, there was nothing but a typical downward slope. No cars were flipping and no one was seen plummeting toward the ground below. Instead, the cars were making their way effortlessly to the bottom. Even though that bridge is harmless, my mind has transformed it into something terrifying.
The unrealistic nightmares about that bridge, have given me a very real fear of bridges. While approaching a bridge, I always have a mini pep talk with myself so that I can get over it calmly. I saw this one last night in an article. It stretches for nearly 24 miles over a lake! No way will I be crossing that anytime soon.
Bored? Drive into a lake. That would be fun…
Has anything harmless in your life ever turned into a nightmare?
Me - Who am I? 
I have serious issues with all bridges and over passes. And we have lots of them here. Every over pass gets a little prayer. Every bridge gets a prayer. I just know that one day the overpass will fail and my car will plummet. It’s freaky!
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I guess I am lucky in the fact that rarely must I cross a bridge. Now overpasses on the other hand, we’ve got plenty of. Oddly, I am not afraid of driving over those, but I’m a little spooked when driving under them. That’s a lot of concrete waiting to collapse on my head.
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Yes!!! That too!!!
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Old Western movies. My brother loved them, and I had to watch. Ugh. Scary stuff.
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Western movies were a favorite of my first step father. Like you, I didn’t care for them at all. I’m picturing some movie clips in my head as I type this.
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The only bad dream I recall had a big white owl in a bar my dad used to own. I do NOT want to look up what that means. While I was reading your first sentences I was thinking SHE SHOULD STAY OFF OF THAT BRIDGE! I am in my “after work brain fog” and didn’t quite get it. 😉
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A big white owl sounds a bit scary, especially if it was in attack mode. It’s funny that you said that, because I was wondering who all would think that during the first paragraph or so.
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Is that the bridge over lake Pontchartrain in Lousiana? I’ve been over that -twice! It’s a shallow lake, not much to worry about. I do have a scary real-life bridge story, though – http://heretherebespiders.com/2013/03/31/lightning-flashes/
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It is. It looks neat, but I don’t think the idea of it being a shallow lake would calm my nerves at all. I told my someone that if I did go across it, I would keep all the windows down in the car (for escape) and wear a life jacket. I’m headed over to read your story now.
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Well, don’t ever move to the Gulf Coast! Bridges abound 🙂
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Oh. I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida, and I loved the beach – but I had many many nightmares of tidal waves sucking my family under as I scrambled up the low dunes…
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That would be a terrifying dream. I wonder what causes the good things to turn so scary in our minds. Perhaps it’s the deep rooted unknown factor, the what if, that we rarely put any thought to.
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I was never really taught to swim, so I always panicked a bit when it was a high surf. But I sure had that dream a lot. Ugh.
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I grew up in an area that has no real poisonous spiders, and hence I am not afraid of spiders at all, when I am awake.
However, in my dreams, it is always a giant glowing red spider which eats me.
Or sometimes, I fall from the back of a hobby horse and become paralyzed. Because, obviously.
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Eek! I’d run from that one too! Like I mentioned in another comment, I wonder if it’s the rarely thought about unknown, the what ifs, that scare us.
Your second one could happen to anyone. You know, because as adults don’t we all ride on hobby horses?
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Oh absolutely. And build blanket forts.
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I too am not a fan of bridges. When they are long and high I just talk myself through getting over them.
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Good thing we have ourselves to encourage us. I wonder what it is about bridges that makes them so scary to us. it seems that several people have that fear. Maybe it’s the loss of self-control, because we’re depending on a man-made structure.
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I think you are right!
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Before crossing a bridge I always mentally rehearse my actions for when (not *if* as I am convinced it’s just a matter of *when*) we go over the edge. When my girls were little, I’d figure out the fastest way to get them out of their car seats. Should I open the door first, or unstrap them first? If I was a passenger and their Dad was driving, would it sound strange if I talked it out with him that he needs to get child behind his seat while I got child behind mine?
Now I worry about my dog in the “way back” of the car — how do I get to her in time?
Referencing one of the comments, I’m ok with driving under overpasses and through concrete tunnels — but it’s taken me a while to get used to the mountain tunnels here in Norway. All. That. Rock. Above. The. Car.
We all have our living nightmares, don’t we?!
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I don’t think that’s strange at all. I always act out scenarios in my mind for potential tragedies. It’s better to be over-prepared and maybe even a bit paranoid, than not prepared at all.
It’s interesting that the overpasses don’t bother you, but the mountain tunnels do. I’m the opposite. Mountain tunnels don’t bother me at all. I find them fascinating.
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