The Pope recently said that builders of walls including possibly framers of walls can’t be Christian, but only bridge builders can. Caesar built a stone bridge just below the surface of the Thames when conquering England, so I don’t know if hidden bridges count or not. Caesar wasn’t Christian though every stone might have brought him closer unto God in some kind of theology.
Moses had the Red Sea parted for him and didn’t have the opportunity to build a bridge, yet if he had he would certainly have opted to be a Christian.
At combat engineer school long ago we practiced with not only Bailey Bridges such as were used all over Italy in the Second World War, we also used a float pontoon bridge that extended from a truck. It was a brilliant instant bridging device captured by the Israelis in the 6 day war that was invented by the Russians. Bridges brought Israel over the narrow waterway separating the Sinai from Egypt and enabled the tourist phrase ‘come to Israel and Sea the pyramids’ see some use briefly before Began gave them back.
Bridges have always been a sign of peace through victory. Crossing the Rhine required a lot of bridge building, whereas walls tended to be used for defensive purpose by those that resist invasions and imperial powers. If one is a real diplomat soothing mass politics building bridges is probably more desirable that building walls.
I am not certain of the Biblical implications of building bridges or walls regarding be Christian. there may be a percentage of Christian conduct per bridges built versus a ratio of walls built. One need bridges for automobiles yet walls for sleeping behind. Driving is more fun than sleeping. I suppose that’s why the Pope prefers bridges and anathematizes walls.
I incidentally had the idea of using hovercraft adaptations to electric cars to eliminate the need for bridges. It may sound silly yet it actually would be possible to avoid even trillions of dollars of new U.S. infrastructure highway bridge building in many places with new forms of transportation that follow power lines and have auto-pilot artificial driving guidance. Just a thought.
Garrison Gibson: books and blog 