Let the Morrissy Bridge die with dignity

The bridge.
You know the one I’m talking about.
One entrance sits next to what I’ll always call the Wharf Inn, the other sits in what I’ll always call Chatham Head.
The Morrissy Bridge. There aren’t too many alive today who can remember a time when she didn’t span the Miramichi River.
But pretty soon, men are going to come with machines and take her apart.
Since before the First World War, the Morrissy Bridge has linked one side of this river with the other.
She’s more than just tons of used-up steel waiting to be scratched off a list on the desk of some bureaucrat in Fredericton.
But pretty soon that’s just what’ll happen.
Some of my earliest memories are of that bridge. Like a lot of people, I’ll never forget the sound tires made on her steel-grating floor, a sound I’ll likely never hear again.
If I said that didn’t bother me I’d be lying.
But I’m not going to raise a fuss about it, scream and shake my fist or sing We’re Not Gonna Take It either. This feels like one of those issues the government has got its mind set on and I’m sure making noise about it will only be a waste of breath.
The Morrissy Bridge has been condemned. The millions and millions of dollars needed to even give the bridge a Band-Aid fix is well beyond what the province would ever consider spending on it. Basically it’s all over but the crying.
I know, I know. The people who would like to see the bridge turned into a walking trail are up in arms about its impending demise. They’ve started facebook sites and written letters to the editor and such. That’s great but that won’t amount to a hill of beans when it’s all said and done. And what’s the point of fighting when losing is a foregone conclusion? For whatever reason it seems like the folks down in Fredericton like to pick on the Miramichi, but that’s the way she goes.
The people in the know expect the tender to be called before Christmas, with demolition a possibility not long after.
That grand old lady who served us as best she could for the better part of a century is on her deathbed. Let her go with some dignity.
So if you are one of the thousands who love the Morrissy Bridge get out there and take some photographs or paint a picture or write a song about her cause pretty soon, those things will be all we have left. That bridge will soon be a thing of the past and this city will never feel quite the same again.