Galloping Gertie-Personal Narrative

Startled by the sound of my canine, Charlie barking, my spoon plunged onto the table with a recognisable metallic clang as it tumbled across the table knocking what was left of my now soggy cornflakes all over the table. “Be quiet!” I shouted as he was likely to be barking at somebody walking down the street, but the barking continued. Slightly annoyed now, I went into the front room to see what he was barking at, when I heard a ‘rap-a tap-tap’ at the door which was followed by Carlie’s immediate reply. “Get back!” I told Charlie as I went to open the door. As soon as I opened the door even slightly ajar I knew it was my best friend Jesse.
“What are you doing here?” I enquired slightly quizzically. While also thinking what is he here to get us into this time. Whenever I go out with Jesse we seem to get into some crazy adventure of his, last time we even got lost.
“Do you want to go down and walk across Galloping Gertie?” he asked.
Galloping Gertie, as many people in the area call it, is a bridge unlike many others. This bridge is not straight at all; and bounces and twists in the wind almost like a bucking bull which it had now been doing for weeks. There had been attempts to use tie-down cables and cable stays to try to stop the movement but to no avail. I took some time to think about Jesse’s proposal but of course I said yes as I had never been down there before and was intrigued to find out what it is
like.

We strolled along the riverside pathway as the wind howled through sending us into brief moments of freezing as if we were standing in the freezer aisle of a grocery store, shortly followed by the warm sunshine of the summer day. We’re only about 10 minutes away when we turned the corner and saw it in the distance as it swayed with the wind; it looked like it would be so much fun to go across.
We reached the bridge and I realised why he had wanted to come here today. This bridge was about 20m long and 5m wide. The base of the bridge was made from thick logs with suspension cables holding it all together. Really, this bridge was an enlarged version of a rope and log bridge found in a children’s playground.
We moved to the edge where the bridge met the road and took the first few feeble footsteps like a child learning to walk; we stumbled and almost tumbled under the vibrations of the bridge. We laugh as we moved uneasily further towards the centre, this bridge is great fun as it bounced almost like a bouncing castle. Then for no good reason other than a good laugh, I said “I’ll race you across the bridge and back!” as I started to charge off in the other distance. I knew that he is faster than me but I hope that the vibrations will throw him off.
“Alright, you’re on,” I heard him shout before I heard the thud of what I assumed was him chasing me down. I could sense that he was catching me up now as the sweat dripped off my face.
As I reached the end and turned to see Jesse only a few metres behind me, I charged towards the middle when in an instant I was hit by the rushing waves of the wind as it passed by the bridge. In the shock of the crosswind I am thrown head over heels. I hit the ground with a solid thump and looked around to see that Jesse has been knocked to the ground too. But unlike me, he seemed to have taken the brunt of the wind because only a few metres behind me he is sprawled in an unmoving heap. I picked myself up and go and see if he is alright but when I reached him I find that he was covered in grazes and his clothes are slashed.
Of course he was the one that gets knocked out, the adventurous, crazy and sometimes stupid friend. This sort of situation where he goes and hurts himself was really only a matter of time. It was then that I decided that I needed to get him off this bridge. I stared at him like a predator watching its prey from afar, as I decide how to move him. I decided that the safest option was to drag him from his arms and letting his legs drag, rather than letting his head drag. Slowly and steadily I dragged Jesse the ten or so tiresome metres off the bridge. Just as I pulled Jesse off the rickety logs of the bridge I heard it, a ripping noise like someone had ripped their pants but as I turned round to see what it was I saw the wires holding the bridge together snap quite suddenly to my surprise. Thankfully I had saved my friend from the destruction of the bridge.