DALLAS (BP)–The Lacey V. Murrow Bridge — also known as the Lake Washington Floating Bridge — stretches over the lake from the Mount Baker neighborhood of Seattle, Wash., to the north end of Mercer Island. It was, for its time, an engineering and design marvel.
In the late 1930s, there was a real need for a bridge over Lake Washington. The population of the area was growing rapidly, and commuters needed a quicker way to cross from Seattle to Mercer Island. But bridge designers and builders were faced with some engineering problems. First of all, this bridge was to span over water that was up to two hundred feet deep. Second, the bottom of the lake in many spots was nothing but soft mud, meaning that the bridge pilings would most likely sink into the earth and disappear.
Obviously, it would not be possible to build a conventional bridge over that part of Lake Washington. So engineer Home Hadley designed the world’s first floating bridge, an amazing innovation. It was 6,620 feet long and held up by twenty-two hollow concrete pontoons, each 350 feet long by 59 feet wide by 14 feet deep. Holding the pontoons in place were cables attached to 65-ton anchors that were held together end-to-end by four-inch solid rubber gaskets.
The Lake Washington Floating Bridge was designed with one problem in mind — that no ordinary bridge could span the gulf of Lake Washington. As amazing as it was, however, it wasn’t nearly as amazing as what God did to bridge the gulf between Himself and a lost humanity.
The bridge God built spanned something infinitely deeper and wider than Lake Washington. It was made not out of concrete, steel, cables and asphalt, but out of two pieces of wood and the blood of His very own Son, Jesus Christ.
There was a more or less final chapter to the original Lake Washington Floating Bridge. Over the period of half a century after its construction, the bridge gradually but surely wore down. In 1990, as part of a roadway project in the Seattle area, plans were made for a $30 million renovation. But on Nov. 25 of that year, in the midst of the renovation, a heavy rainstorm pounded the Seattle area. Some of those floating concrete pontoons took on water, and about half of this wondrous example of man’s ingenuity sank to the bottom of the lake.
In a matter of a few hours, what had been a renovation project became a major restoration and rebuilding project.
That’s how it is with man-made bridges, isn’t it? No matter how innovatively they are built, no matter how much money we spend, no matter how many skillful people design and build them — eventually they wear out and need to be replaced.
Not so with the bridge God built between His heart and ours. His bridge not only spans the immeasurable gulf between Him and us, but it lasts for all eternity. Because of His wonderful love and compassion for those who know of their need for Him, He has a bridge to Himself that will never wear out, never collapse and never need renovation.
It is the only perfect bridge ever built.
And it’s the bridge to the God you’ve been searching for!
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This column was adapted from Brunson’s book, “The God You’ve Been Searching For” (Moody Publishers, 2004). The book is available online at www.lifewaystores.com. Brunson is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas.
