I’ve noticed that, and discussed it with, a few of my friends have a definite aversion to driving over high bridges, high overpasses and long stretches of elevated freeway. While I still drive anywhere, I’ve noted some discomfort myself when approaching such roadway.
Why is this?
One friend who’s only a few years older (55 v. 51) has described her bridge intimidation sensation as being one of vertigo. That doesn’t quite cover it for me. But she will absolutely avoid a bridge and spend an extra hour taking us somewhere by the ferry.
Another friend, who is a couple of years younger, has told me that she is similarly unnerved by those high passageways.
Other friends have reinforced this perception that, as we age, we become increasingly uncomfortable with altitude and roadways.
When you look at it objectively, driving over the Mississippi River 80 feet in the air is no different than hauling butt through West Texas on I-10.
Well, I’m only 30 and I don’t like bridges—but then I’m not a fan of heights even when I’m outside of a vehicle.
I don’t know if it’s much more complicated than yer basic, hard-wired fear of falling. Combine the fact that you’re up high with the fact that you’re hurtling along a X MPH, and some primitive part of the primate brain starts getting nervous.
It may be that this is more intense older people whose sense of confidence in their balance may be decreasing.
You say you get the idea that as people age their fear increases. Are you sure that’s it, or do you mean that older people today are more likely to be fearful than younger people today.
IOW, is the difference the age of the individual, or the year they were born?
I’m very comfortable with great heights, but very high & long bridges and such were common when I was young. Somebody who’s 70 today grew up when bridge collapses were common and they were rarely the long high spans we see on Discovery Channel gee-whiz shows now.
Now if somebody says, “You know, when I was 40 none of this bothered me, but now that I’m 60 they scare me a lot.”, now that’d be an indication that aging, as opposed to era, is the key issue.
As you may know, there have been several threads here on fear of bridges, and I was flat amazed to see the large outpouring of bridgeophobia(?). Seems like bridge discomfort affects more like 5-10% of the populace, rather than the 1 in 100,000 I’d have expected. Perhaps you’re just now discovering how common bridgeophobia apparently is.
My husband does not like driving over high or long bridges, or bridges over deep ravines. He yelps out sonofabitch! when he approaches one, and drives with white knuckles until we’re on the other side.
I’m not so bad, but have to confess, this one in France would make me say sonofabitch! too.
I like driving over bridges. I especially like it when someone else is driving and I can look at an angle so that I can’t see the bridge deck. Then when we go onto the bridge, it feels like we’re falling into the river.
Of course, I used to like it when I got the spins too.
I knew one person who didn’t like driving over bridges. He wasn’t afraid of heights, but he always felt like the bridge was going to collapse.
(As an aside, the bridge he most often worried about eventually did partially collapse and send some people into the river… in winter!)
I don’t like the illusion that as I approach the apex of a tall, peaked bridge the road is about to drop off into nothingness. One example that I can think of is on Highway 301 in Virginia traveling north towards Maryland.
I never had a problem with either bridges or tunnels. As a child, I once expressed the concern that the bridge could collapse and my dad told me that was silly – if it were going to collapse, it could have done so at any time in the past. The chance that it would suddenly and without warning do so right now during the one minute we were on it was so small as to be not worth thinking about.
OTOH, a couple decades ago when we were on a family vacation with our own kids, daughter #1 chose to intentionally scare daughter #2 (who had recently had a scary experience falling into a pool). “Ooh, look at all the water – if this bridge breaks right now, you’ll fall in there and the water will be way over your head, and nobody will be able to pull you out…” After thoroughly scolding daughter #1, we were finally able to distract the 5-year-old by pointing out the strong bridge superstructure and its interesting patterns. Plus she got to enjoy a nice new big word, “superstructure.”
I’ve talked with two more friends about this, and we agree on somethings but not on all. One thing we all agree on is that it is something that developed in our late 40s.
I have not historically had a fear of heights, and I don’t think that affects me here. I have a long history of seeking out high bridges. That’s changing.
Neither am I, nor are any of the folks I’ve been talking to recently, particularly worried about structures collapsing.
None of the group has any problem riding over a bridge with someone else driving.
My friend to whom I first referred, a 55 year old woman, did describe her problem as vertigo. But that doesn’t fit everybody.
For the moment, I’m guessing Podkayne might have stabbed at it best, in that perhaps it reflects a bit of a slip in our confidense in our physical abilities as we become aware that our bodies are making that first tack towards going around the corner.
