illusionofjoy | Fear of bridges (Reply)

From the AP's Travel department:

Some people will do anything to avoid crossing bridges like the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial (Bay) Bridge, its 186-foot height and 4-mile ride causing anything from mild distress to a full-blown panic attack. But many push on, motivated by necessity, pride and perhaps penny-pinching.

It costs $50 roundtrip to hire a private contractor to drive you over the dual-span bridge.

With my lifelong dread of bridges, I remember muttering when I learned that Maryland last year stopped offering free rides over the Bay Bridge, No. 1 on my list of terror spans. And yet ending the freebies might have been the best thing the state has done for those like me.

You need to cross, one way or the other, to get control of the phobia, according to psychotherapist Jerilyn Ross, president and chief executive of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. In fact, part of the therapy is learning how to do it.

Anyone with a bridge phobia would do well to not move to Pittsburgh. From the multitude of bridges crossing the rivers, to the bridges spanning gorges in the topography to the overpasses that connect and criss-cross the freeways, Pittsburgh isn't known as the "city of bridges" for nothing. Anyone already fearing bridges would only have their fear reinforced by the fact that on certain local spans, one tends to get trapped on the span during rush hour as most of them end at an intersection. Further exacerbating the phobia would be the fact that one can feel certain bridges bouncing when a large truck drives onto the span (the 10^th Street Bridge and Smithfield Street Bridge are the worst offenders in this regard).

Personally, I've never been afraid of bridges, however I did have a fear of escalators as a child. Having to use such things on a daily bases has caused such feeling to evaporate, as it is a matter of facing it or perishing.

Of course, you can always freak yourself out more, if you prefer. A couple of videos which will ratchet up the paranoia...

Tacoma Narrows Collapse
Bonus: sensationalistic 1940's journalism!

Nearly 70 years later - Minneapolis I-35W Bridge Collapse