Most people look at a bridge and see the obvious way to get to the other side. Some people look at the same bridge and see a death-dealing monster blocking the way.
Their terror knows no season, but for many of the stricken, summer is the cruelest, as the beach beckons from the other side of a bridge too far.
Patrolmen meet them at the head of the bridge, then drive their cars across for them. The Delaware River Port Authority โ whose four bridges linking Pennsylvania and New Jersey include those major Shore arteries, the Ben Franklin and the Walt Whitman โ also will help drivers in trouble, though it's not standard operating procedure. Get the news you need to start your day.
At the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the phobic are not as rare as one might expect, with transports in and the year before. About 60 percent are repeat customers, according to Col. Richard Arroyo of the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which operates the twin suspension bridges; some regulars call ahead to schedule appointments when they know they will be traveling to the area. Men are just as scared as women, millennials as bridge-shy as boomers. The service has been offered since the structure opened in Two officers in a cruiser will then pull up behind.
They introduce themselves and look inside. The driver signs a liability form and slides to the passenger side, ceding the wheel. Off they go over the two-mile span, with the second officer following. Sometimes, though, the conversation wanders into a dark place: "If you don't mind me asking, why do you have an issue driving over the bridge? They just can't do it. Acrophobia, however, is not a label that fits all of the bridge-averse, says Reid Wilson, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and author of several books on anxiety-related illnesses.
