Water Under The Bridge

Seems like there is a railroad bridge about every mile in East Texas and most are susceptible to flooding .

          

Years ago, out in the piney woods of East Texas there was an old depot agent who was as fine a fellow as you would ever want to be around. He was friendly, hard working and had a heart as big as life itself. He did, however, have one fault. He was a talker. Once you engaged him in conversation, you were lucky if you could disengage him. If you asked him a simple question, you always got a lot more than what you had asked. Talking to him was like getting a drink out of a fire hydrant, you always got more than you wanted.

          

Most people understood him and accepted him as he was, a devoted and lovable man. However, his talkativeness also ran over into his correspondence at work. His business letters rambled on and on. Back at this time the agents would send wires to other agencies on the railroad such as the Superintendent's office, the Trainmaster's office and many others. It would cost the company a fee based on how many words or spaces were used in each wire.

          

This cost came to the attention of the Superintendent's office and the Agent was confronted and told that he was to immediately change his wordy habits when it came to sending wires. He was to only include pertinent information and keep the verbiage down to an absolute minimum. The Agent found this very difficult and he received several more visits concerning his wordiness, each visit was a little more harsh and he was told that his time for changing was running out.

          

Spring was arriving and with it came heavy rains. It rained for days and flooding began to be a problem on the railroad. Portions of track and bridges were beginning to wash out. In this particular part of East Texas there was a long bridge over a creek that had a history of washing out. The problem was that with all the roads closing and the associated water problems no one could reach the bridge to inspect it. It would be necessary to know the bridge's status in order to form an operating plan for running trains.

          

Finally the Superintendent called the Agent, knowing he lived near the bridge, and asked him if he would inspect the bridge and then send a wire to all involved as to the bridge's status. Everyone was waiting anxiously for his information in order to come up with a plan.

         

Finally the wire from the old Agent came. It said "The water is where the bridge was!" I guess they finally got their point across to the talkative old Agent.