Author Topic: PC737: The Eight Hundred Legs of the Rio-Niterói Bridge  (Read 500 times)

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PodCastle 737: The Eight Hundred Legs of the Rio-Niterói Bridge

Author: Renan Bernardo
Narrator: Diogo Ramos
Host: Matt Dovey
Audio Producer: Eric Valdes

PodCastle 737: The Eight Hundred Legs of the Rio-Niterói Bridge is a PodCastle original.

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Content Warning:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)



Show Notes
Rated PG-13



 

Have you seen pictures of the unfinished Presidente Costa e Silva Bridge, with its columns telling stories of falls and drownings like tombstones for the never found and the cemented alive?

I saw many in 1972, soon after Papai vanished during the bridge’s construction, mostly by peering over my mother’s shoulders while she flipped through documents and pictures, sobbing and wondering if some ferryman could’ve rescued Papai. Perhaps a fisherman saw a hand waving desperately for help in the water? How could she be sure without staring into the glazed, distant eyes of a deceased husband? After those days, I convinced myself I’d never look at pictures of the bridge under construction again, those tall columns with their gray, ominous girders jutting out of the stone like the last, frantic gestures of hands begging for help.

Except now, twenty years after the accident, I have pictures of the unfinished bridge scattered over my desk.

The reports are confused and scarce. O Globo mentions a small navy boat sinking under the bridge. Jornal do Brasil mentions a lot of trash afloat near the columns. Both of them mention people or animals walking on the columns’ bases. And less trustworthy outlets speak of monsters swimming along the bay. I flip the pictures, grabbing a few recent ones to jot down numbers on the pillars, marking those where the incidents have been reported. Probably cases of piracy or robbery. Though they’re rare so far into Guanabara Bay, it’s the most plausible explanation. With a little star, I tick the column that was built over the tomb of my father and his colleagues.




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