A Bridge to Nowhere
Reading Time — 8 minutes
If you haven’t heard the story of Choluteca bridge in Honduras you are probably not alone. One of my friends, shared this story with me recently and it occurred to me that this Choluteca bridge or which is now more commonly known as “bridge to nowhere” is a very powerful metaphor for constantly changing life, business and market conditions.
Honduras is known for its extreme weather conditions with anual Caribbean hurricane season and high winds. So, the government, with the help of the best minds of the world put together, built a suspension bridge that would last any extreme conditions that will come across its way for at least 100 years. Fast forward to 1998, when Honduras was hit by a category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Mitch, which is the second most deadliest hurricane in the Atlantic which pelted Choluteca by almost 75 inches of rainfall in less than four days. Hundreds of bridges across Honduras were destroyed- but the new Choluteca bridge stood firm. The bridge was in near perfect condition. But there was a significant problem that had nothing to do with the integrity of the bridge. The river that was flowing underneath the bridge has changed its course and now the river was flowing besides the bridge. Take a look at these pictures below and see if you can spot the difference before and after
Before
After
This is a very interesting situation right? Greatest minds that money could find in the world, created a bridge that lasted the storm but one of the main assumptions in their initial design for obvious reasons was that the river would be there however heavy the storm might be. Not that this is a blunder or anything or even a mistake because, most of us in their craziest nightmares would dream of disruption such as this. Now the bridge is no more than a white elephant which is occupying real estate and is of no use. That’s why it is generally called as “a bridge to nowhere”
What are examples from the industry and what can we learn from them?
- Ability to adapt to change:Charles Darwin says in his famous book The Origin of Species, “It is not the strongest or most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change.” There are plenty of examples of big organizations who were at peak of their success were just unable to adapt to change the conditions failed. We all know the story of Kodak, once the biggest player who could not keep up with the digital revolution and is almost non-existent now. We also have heard of IBM, one of the prominent companies until personal computers came along in the 1980s. The list goes on and on.
- When Solution becomes the problem: If you haven’t heard of Thomas Midgley Jr. then you should know about him. He helped General Motors develop CFC refrigerants and Lead as an anti knocking agent in the fuel. Leaded Gasoline resulted in cardiovascular diseases with mildest of exposures in adults along with serious environmental damages. His inventions caused most damage to the environment which will last for probably another century or more.
- The best of the products do not have markets for them: We all know about Google Glass which never saw as much excitement as the technology developers expected. Same goes for this bridge, now the bridge is of no use other than just a metaphor.
- We must rethink our blind faith in technology to fix all our problems. Sure, technology has solved innumerable problems. But technology has to have a narrow focus to achieve its purpose. It cannot have an expansive view to consider unexpected glitches and seemingly improbable and extraordinary exigencies
- Nature is one of the best teachers. We know this now more than ever. During the time of pandemic, there have been major disruptions. We as a community have realized there are many things that we can really do differently. Wedding ceremonies can be conducted with less than 20 people. Virus has forced us back to our hometowns and reinvigorated the necessity of strong family bonds. The most important is this virus personally taught me the benefits of silence and solitude so that we can look into ourselves and explore deeper recesses of our consciousness.
Conclusion and last Remarks:
The Choluteca Bridge is a metaphor for change in the face of unpredictable occurrences. The hurricane was the disrupter. The river that carved an alternative route for itself represented the norms of the alternative world. And the bridge standing for the society had to adapt to the new order. So is the post Covid era. We need to revisit the things we did everyday and find out if we can do them differently. Think about changing situations and how we can adapt the changes in nature better.
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