A bridge too far ... up

        

This picture came from a facebook page called Interesting Engineering.  
The only caption information read "Pont De Normandie, France."

Over the years there has been a recurring dream, one that has never come up in discussion so far, mostly because there isn't an easy interpretation and for that reason alone it has been disturbing.

It involves driving a vehicle over a bridge, only the bridge is so high and the road so steep, the vehicle never makes it to the top and the effort paralyzes the driver in fear.  In the process, the climb is agonizingly long and never reaches the peak, like other dreams about actions with no outcome, like the endless falling dream many people report having. There is one where I am in a fight and throw a punch that goes on forever, never connects and the swing never stops.  This vehicle only climbs and climbs and climbs getting ever higher but apparently never crossing the river.

There probably are standard interpretations for this dream like there are for the falling one but so far none has showed up in anything I've read or heard. What are the symbols here?  A bridge spans an obstacle.  But in this the bridge becomes an obstacle in itself.  It is dizzyingly high, and the roadway narrow.  Perhaps height is part of the disturbance and that bridge represents a height beyond the capability of the dreamer, a frustrating unreachable goal.  There just doesn't seem to be a simple interpretation, but the feelings generated are all too real.

When this picture showed up on facebook today it hit me in the pit of my stomach; I actually responded physically to the sight and the dream came immediately to mind as this bridge is so reminiscent of the one in those dreams. At first it looked like the roadway went all the way up to those high arches, a height comparable with the dream.  A more careful look revealed the road only goes about half that high, but, still steep and a long climb.

Thoughts of these dreams of endless unresolved actions reminded me of another.  For the first year or so that I lived in Alaska, I had a recurring dream that I was Outside somewhere (meaning somewhere other than Alaska). The whole dream revolved around trying to get back to Alaska and the frustration of not being able to overcome obstacles to that effort again leaving the dreamer suspended in a frustrating yearning to somehow make it back.  Like throwing that punch that never lands or climbing that insurmountable bridge in endless fearful frustration.  I met someone who had the same dream.

In writing this it's starting to occur that it is that frustration and all of these dreams really are based in the same stimulus somehow, the effort of reaching for something unattainable. At this time of day, the one thing to reach for is sleep. Why don't I get these ideas in the morning?  Now there's this idea of dreaming about taking a swing at a bridge too tall to climb and falling off it but never reaching the river below which would be my way back to Alaska.  I may be awake for a while.

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From Wikipedia: The Pont de Normandie is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the river Seine linking Le Havre to Honfleur in Normandy, northern France. Its total length is 7,032 feet,  2,808 feet between the two piers. Despite being a motorway toll bridge, there is a footpath as well as a narrow cycle lane in each direction allowing pedestrians and cyclists to cross the bridge free of charge.  Its height is listed as 705 feet but that may be to the top of the towers.  What ever it is, I don't think I will be going there any time soon.

Oh no, there's another one