Our story
The bridge, and the name it gave us.
A family bridge across the Salmon River, and a poem about building for whoever comes next.
Why a bridge
The bridge was chosen as the look and logo of this organization because a bridge closes a gap. Bridges help make a difference, and closing the gap for someone is what we set out to do.
The bridge on the Salmon River
Bridges Building Connections was founded by Diane Neff.
Diane's mother crossed the Salmon River near Challis, Idaho, as a child with her siblings and parents in a cable car.
Crossing that way came with real risk, and it was a daily task: going to and from school, meeting family or friends, carrying supplies back and forth.
In the 1950s, Diane's grandfather, Ralph Hutchison, bought a steel bridge near Clayton, Idaho, had it disassembled and hauled in, and had it reassembled across the Salmon River. It eased the risk of crossing and made a ranch on the other side of the river more viable.
Diane crossed that bridge hundreds or thousands of times over the years. It was always a welcome sight—one that promised getting safely to the other side.
Be the bridge
Thinking about the bridge brings a powerful idea with it: be the bridge. That can mean:
- Be the person who notices someone struggling.
- Be willing to cross the distance.
- Connect someone with the help they need.
- Use what you have to help someone else move forward.
- Don't wait for someone to come all the way to you—meet them where they are.
- Help create a path where none existed before.
Each one of us can:
Bridge · Build · Connect
Together, we can make a difference.
The poem
The Bridge Builder
by Will Allen Dromgoole
An old man, going a lone highway,Came, at the evening, cold and gray,To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,Through which was flowing a sullen tide.The old man crossed in the twilight dim;The sullen stream had no fears for him;But he turned, when safe on the other side,And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,“You are wasting strength with building here;Your journey will end with the ending day;You never again must pass this way;You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide—Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head:“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,“There followeth after me today,A youth, whose feet must pass this way.This chasm, that has been naught to me,To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”
At the end of any day, this poem perfectly combines charity and service: the old man does something for someone who cannot repay him, and whom he may never even meet.
It teaches:
- Charity is about giving without expecting something back.
- We can use our own experiences to make someone else's journey easier.
- The bridge represents removing obstacles.
- Charity looks beyond ourselves.
- Our kindness can outlive us.
Diane Neff, founder