Cornell Business

Issue date: 9/6/00 Section: Johnson News

First-years build a bridge

For those of us second years who remember pulling honeysuckle (which actually means cutting down huge tree-like bushes and leaving them there) on the hottest day of the year with only five tools and huge, five-gallon jugs from which to get a drink of water, that was a volunteer day from hell. I kept a smile on my face for the 50-odd first-years who volunteered to head out to the Land Trust during Orientation Week 2000, but underneath it all, I was a little nervous that it would be a repeat of last year.

This project actually had a much higher coolness factor -- we were to build a bridge. A bridge is solid. It's something you can look at and walk on and feel a sense of accomplishment about. I got on the bus and hoped for the best, realizing that if it were unpopular, I would have a large bus of impressionable first years to contend with on the way home.

Luckily, the second day of Orientation proved to be one of the loveliest of the year, and the Land Trust due to more summer rain this year was resplendent with greenery. Only the truly intrepid among us were required to do any real hard work, which entailed lugging huge telephone poles down hills and through trees to form the foundation of the bridge. This was done with about six to eight guys and a couple of chains for each pole. Meanwhile the rest of us did the environmentally unthinkable and tore out small trees from their roots in order to clear space for the foundation, and later, the bridge itself.

Birds were chirping, the creek was burbling, select members of the Class of '02 were rubbing mud all over their legs… Huh, wha? A preemptive remedy for poison oak? Whatever, you barkeaters! But there they were, becoming one with the environment while patiently awaiting the crucial foundation pieces.

Out of the woods came a rallying cry of "heave ho" and those burly men appeared with telephone poles in tow. Once secured in their place across the stream, over an area that used to be an ancient (well, 100 years old or so) railroad, the drilling and hammering began.

Ah teamwork! Two guys did all the work while the rest of us stood around. Nothing like an allegory for the reality of the Johnson School right? But other people did want to participate. It's just that a certain Class of '01 man's man (yes you, Matt) just couldn't bring himself to let go of the drill. Hmm, men and power tools, a very old yet very potent cliché.

Once the drill was physically wrested away and someone else got a chance, the bridge began to take shape. In no time at all the whole team was sitting pretty on our bridge for a couple of glamour shots (muddy legs up front please!)

Acid River at JOE? No problem for a team that already mastered the true art of building bridges, and benefitting the Land Trust for years to come. Great job, Class of '02!

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