May Day! May Day!

In Whitmer kidnapping plot, extremists also wanted to blow up a bridge, tried to buy explosives, feds say https://t.co/hbEys9XELB

— DonnaCassata (@DonnaCassata) April 29, 2021

There are two literary tales that revolve around attempts to blow up a bridge that spring to mind. One is Hemingwya's novel, A Farewell to Arms.  The other is Ambrose Bierce’s short story “Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge.”

Hemingway’s novel revolves around plans to destroy a bridge with explosives, and despite the best efforts of the protagonist, the plan fails.  The best laid plans, the fog of war, etc. The novel details, around the love story, the difficulty of getting the plan to work. It’s a good novel, I don’t mean to belittle it, but the difficulty of the task is central to the story.

Of course, in the movies, the heroes plan and destroy bridges with ease and extreme efficiency.  The whole thing is done in a twinkling if the good guys do it. You might think this alone has led people today to overlook Hemingway’s realism in favor of the fantasy of the “good guy,” with a gun or a bomb, always succeeding because, well...”good guy.”  But Bierce’s story is from the late 19th century.

You may know the story, but have forgotten the hanging that's the core of the story occurs because the condemned man has taken it upon himself to help the Southern cause by blowing up a bridge.  He never gets close to accomplishing his task, because he hasn't the first clue what to do, and finds himself on that bridge facing summary execution,  True to Hollywood form a half-century later, the condemned man imagines he miraculously escapes the hanging and escapes to return home to his beloved wife.

Which is when the noose catches his fall and snaps his neck, returning  himself suddenly and sharply to reality.  

Except for the execution, which they don’t face, I suspect the men arrested for this foolish plot find that story chillingly familiar.