“Old Bridge” by Marwa

There was a bridge close to Shoreham Park for people to walk to school and through the neighbourhoods. The bridge was very worn down and shaky, and the wood had a lot of cracks that would often cause the bridge to shake a lot, to the point that no big crowds could walk across together, and many felt unsafe to walk across it.  

There was a man named Alex, and he was new to the Shoreham neighbourhood. One day he walked to that bridge and saw that the bridge was shaking furiously. He said, “This bridge is so dangerous I need to make a new bridge,” so he went to his neighbours Tom’s house and asked him if he could help him. They agreed to fix the bridge together. 

The next day, they went over to the shop to grab materials to begin fixing the bridge. The old bridge was so broken and shaky that no person wanted to try going across it.  They made their way to the old bridge so they could build the new one. They broke the old boards and cut the ropes. They replaced the old bridge with a newly made concrete bridge with wooden handles on each side. This bridge was already ten times stronger than the one before. They finished making a new bridge and all the neighbours were so  happy and grateful, they decided to throw Alex and Tom an all-day block party. Tom and Alex were so happy that they made the bridge to make others happy.

Meanwhile everyone was enjoying the party. City developers called to ask about the once wonky bridge, but since everyone was partying and celebrating the new bridge, they decided to head over and see why no one was picking up their phones. Once they arrived and saw that the bridge was already fixed, they told their government bosses, who weren’t too happy about the new bridge as they broke the news that they needed that space to make new apartment buildings, which meant that they would need to demolish the new bridge. 

The new developers, frustrated, begin walking to the park where everyone was celebrating. Meanwhile Sara, the local baker, was taking out fresh baked sandwiches for the party, right outside of her bakery. The developers were just walking by; since she was so close she overheard their conversation. 

‘’That’s so sad that this neighbourhood won’t have that new bridge no more,” one  developer said.

‘’Yea, so true…too bad we gotta demolish it for apartment buildings,’’ the other one added. 

Sara, the baker, heard this and dropped her tray of sandwiches in shock at the news. The loud metal BANG!!!! from the tray nearly made the developers jump. 

Sara ran to the party to tell everyone what she heard from the developers and how they wanted to demolish the new bridge. When everyone heard, they were all shocked and someone went to tell Alex everything. Alex, having heard the news, said, “We need to do something,” and they made a plan.

The next day, Alex and everyone in the neighbourhood called for an emergency meeting at the bridge and invited the developers as well, including everyone around who walked the bridge at least once every day.

The bridge becomes surrounded with people. Developers were in shock at how many people cared about the bridge. One of the neighbours yelled at one of the developers very angrily: “You do realise the people need a bridge more than they need new fancy apartment buildings right?”

“What’s so wrong about actually helping your community?” said another angry neighbour. 

The anger grew and grew all over as more remarks were yelled at the developers. It was a sea of people against the two of them. 

Alex and Tom looked at each other before looking around them. Everyone was yelling at the developers all at once.

Alex and Tom screamed, ‘’SILENCE!”

And the crowd went silent. 

Tom began. “We fixed this bridge and worked really hard to make it what it is today. This bridge wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the community!”

‘’Yeah you guys are just here to destroy all that effort!” added Alex. ‘’But we won’t stand by it!”

‘’Yeah!” said one neighbour.

‘’No we won’t!” said another neighbour.

They kept talking over each other until one of the developers said, “Okay we will leave the new bridge alone, under one condition, and that is that you all shut up,” said one of the developers. 

“EVERYONE SILENCE!” Alex screamed, bringing the crowd’s noise immediately to zero. 

Alex looked around surprised with his eyes wide open. “Wow, didn’t think that would work,” he said as he stared at the crowd in silence.

“Gentlemen…” said one developer tilting his construction hat as a sign of goodbye and making their exit up the street. The other developer followed in silence, after briefly shaking hands with Tom.

The developers gave them the bridge. The party continued, and even stretched until the next day making it a bigger party. 

All the people in the neighbourhood danced, sang, and played games.

To everyone’s surprise, even the developers came back to party!

One developer even said, “This party is so fun!”