LIKE FLAT BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS I WILL LAY ME DOWN - Mills Blake

The five of us, senior citizens and life-long friends, just heard about plans to put down Flat Bridge for the new Chinese built, alternate route is now ready to take us straight to Jericho but before we go there, let's invite the public to do a MEMORIAL to FLAT BRIDGE.  We have driven over Flat Bridge all of our lives and have passed through troubled waters and have read of many road and river blocks, rescues and drownings but we go through, glad to avoid Barry and Sligo Ville journeys. I remember touching death's door when I stopped in the middle of the gorge during sudden, heavy, torrential rain that battered the windscreen of the company's brand new high-tech Mazda and I could not find the button to turn on the light. Thank God a police jeep came on. The sergeant stopped, squeezed himself into my car and turned on the light. (Can you see the two long lines of honking vehicles with lights on, in the gorge?) The policeman from a Port Maria wanted no money and I promised him a potato pudding. My other friend  told us how she wanted to show her parents her driver's licence and her first car, a Mini Minor.She left her New Kingston office early for she didn't want 'night to catch her on the road' and when she reached Flat Bridge the car stopped. The man behind enquired,  ...  Crying she said ' mi fraid'. The word spread and she could hear the laughter long after the kind man drove her over the bridge, sent her on her way and ran back to his car.

Flat Bridge has withstood the ravages of many vehicles that could only be driven on the streets of Jamaica. It has been bombarded by hail-storms, rain-storms, hurricanes, floods and numerous, devastating 'riva-come-down-an-mi-cyan-craas-ovah' tragedies for many streams and rivers empty themselves in the Rio Cobre where the old bridge stands proud. It should not be condemned by world-class plastic consultants, famous for quick-fix, short-term projects/construction, neither should decisions be made by  the new slew of twitter engineers with their on-line degrees.

Flat Bridge should not be damned but should be left as a symbol of History, Art, Craft and permanence; of standard and quality work done by the Spaniards, centuries ago and as a reminder to those who may want to damn the area, 'that all that glitters, now, is not gold'..

Yours truly, 

Mills Blake