Our Suspension Bridge

 

During the Sunday afternoon session of the April 2024 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk entitled, Bridging the Two Great Commandments.  He was referring to how Jesus responded to a trap set as he answered a question designed to make him stumble.  What is the greatest commandment?  To which Jesus responded, “To Love God with all thy heart, mind and spirit.”  Then he added, “…and the Second is like unto it. Thy shall love thy neighbor as thy self.”

Elder Stevenson then expressed his observation, “Jesus’ two great commandments, to “love the Lord” and “love your neighbor,” are like the two towers — or “engineering genius” — of a bridge.”  He went on to display images of suspension bridges, pointing out the massive towers as marvelous examples of the need to be secure in your footing on both ends to support the roadway.

We’d purchased our property with a ‘shell house’ already built; but prior to installing sheet rock on the ceilings, we noticed the rafters showed signs of sagging.  A friend of ours did an inspection to see if the house had been properly structured.  He advised adding a support beam to solve the issue of sagging rafters.  That support beam would have been expensive, so I held off on that item.

I came up with a novel solution, install a suspension bridge in the attic, one with support ties going down to each of the rafters.  I’ve since learned that what we constructed is actually a cantilever bridge, not a suspension bridge; but I never claimed to be an engineer.

By using a jack and a two by four, each rafter was lifted to the exact height while a two by four support was attached to the rafter and the bridge to hold it at that height.  We already had the lumber and a skilled carpenter to carry out the idea.  The bridge was firmly anchored on each side to prevent the bridge from expanding as the weight of the ceiling pulled down on it.

I had Bowen Nell, my neighbor’s son, go into the attic to take pictures of the bridge.  I probably should have taken these photographs back when the bridge was newly completed.  I’d saved a bunch of money by being creative; but didn’t consider the oddity of having a cantilever bridge in the attic holding up the den ceiling.  It would have been much easier and been able to get a better idea of how it actually looks, but since installing the bridge we’ve added an air conditioning unit, heater and all the air ducts in the attic.