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A Different Kind of Bridge
The results from this election have made it impossible to ignore the expanding chasm in the country — it isn’t too late to bridge it
The Ausable chasm is located in the Adirondacks, in Upstate New York. It dates back some 500 million years, when animals were just beginning to explore land. The chasm measures 50 feet at its widest point. By the time humans came to inhabit the chasm region, rights to it had been repeatedly disputed. In the 1750s it became one of the bloodiest sites of the French and Indian War, with more than 3,000 casualties. The area came under Iroquois control when the war ended. However, at the end of the Revolutionary War the Iroquois sold the land to the State of New York for a paltry $1,600. Almost 150 years later, in 1932, a bridge was built to ford the geological chasm. Today, it is a key tourist site in Upstate New York, yet thankfully, not terribly busy. I was there in the summer of 1999, and it was as advertised — a beautiful location.
Fast forward to the present. Today we have a societal chasm that often seems unbridgeable. The number of COVID-19 cases continues to balloon. The COVID Exit Strategy site has been tracking cases across the country using a simple red-yellow-green coloring system; but because of a massive increase in cases, the site has had to add an additional color to designate uncontrolled spread.
