Mind Your Own Bridges Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

There are actually two. The window is little more than a slit but according to our tour guide it provided the last glimpse of family for prisoners. The bridge is both narrow and low ceilinged with a claustrophobic feeling.

Answer: Ambrose Bierce

What an absolutely wonderful story. During his life Bierce was a critic. He was feared by budding writers as he could either make or break their careers. He was nicknamed "bitter Bierce".
The story has been filmed.

Answer: Market Garden

This was an airborne operation in Sept. 1944 in the Netherlands to facilitate the ground forces crossing of the lower Rhine river. The title comes from a UK Lieut. General who told General Montgomery 'I think we might be going a bridge too far'. He was correct, the mission failed to break the Nazi lines at Arnhem. There were more allied casualties here than the entire Normandy landings.

Answer: Arno

An interesting piece of information about this bridge offers us an explanation for the word bankrupt in the English language. The bridge is still lined with shops but originally goods were displayed on a table or banco outside. If a merchant could not pay his debts then soldiers rotto came and literally broke his table. The whole process was called bancarotto. www.Art history club.

Answer: UNESCO

This little bridge had survived all sorts of calamities since its construction 1557-'66, until shells fell on it during the wars following the fragmentation of the former Yugoslavia. UNESCO promised to re-build it. At a cost of $15.5m, they used local stone and traditional methods of quoins, cramps and dowels.

When it was officially opened the then President of Bosnia-Herzegovinia hoped it would be "a dialogue, understanding and reconciliation [to] replace the turbulence of the past".

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

This is included in 'The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes'. According to David Stuart Davies the inspiration came from a real case in Germany which an editor had brought to Conan Doyle's attention. It was filmed as early as 1923.

Answer: Peru

This story written back in 1927 tells of several unrelated people who happen to be on a bridge in Peru when it collapses. Wilder won the Pullitzer Prize in 1928.

Answer: Bascule

The bridge moves to allow shipping to pass beneath. The word bascule comes from a seventeenth century French word for see-saw(literally batter buttocks). Encarta College Dictionary.

Answer: Yes

The bridge spans the river Tarn in the Massif Central and is 984 feet tall. At its highest point it reaches a staggering 1125 feet(343m). It was opened by French President Jacques Chirac in Dec. 2004.

Answer: Clapper

A clapper bridge is an ancient form of bridge found in Devon/Cornwall. It is formed by large flat slabs of granite supported on stone piers across rivers or resting on the banks of rivers. According to the Dartmoor National Park the word comes from Anglo Saxon 'cleaca' to bridge the stepping stones. Postbridge was first recorded in 1380 and was built for moving tin by pack horse to Tavistock.