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Good morning. It was reported on Monday that the Humber Bridge had been given Grade I listed status. When it was completed in June 1981 its detractors said it was a “bridge to nowhere” and that there was no economic or other evidence to support building it. So it seems quite a turnaround that the Humber Bridge should now be so feted. There are just six Grade 1 listed structures in England built since 1961. No fewer than three of them are bridges. The other two are the Severn Bridge and the striking Kingsgate Bridge in Durham. We don’t honour bridges simply for their visual impact and fine engineering. They change the way we live. Here in Norwich, just one medieval bridge survives. Bishop Bridge, over the River Wensum, dates from 1340. It’s in constant use by cyclists and pedestrians, and is one of the oldest bridges in England still serving its original purpose. It’s an arch bridge, the type favoured by the Romans. Leonardo da Vinci’s definition of an arch is the clue to this historic bridge’s enduring strength. He said: “An arch is nothing else than a strength caused by two weaknesses; the arch is made of two segments of a circle, and as each being in itself very weak desires to fall, and one withstands the downfall of the other, the two weaknesses are converted into a single strength.” Perhaps engineering has more to teach us about life than we imagine. There’s a little parable here about how we deal with burdens and tensions. One of St Paul’s most paradoxical claims was that “when I am weak, then I am strong”. Where there’s stress, tension or conflict, those who are rigid and inflexible rarely help to share the load. That’s well illustrated by the way a suspension bridge, like the Humber Bridge, works. It moves as the traffic travels over it. It’s meant to. It transfers the weight onto the main cables which pass the weight through the towers to the ground. The people we are most likely to love and admire are not generally those with no give in them, or who don’t appreciate their need for others. So it’s no surprise that St Paul told the Romans they should bear the weaknesses of those without strength. There are many organisations using some variant of the phrase “building bridges” to highlight their work, whether it’s for families with complex needs, barriers to employment, handling conflict or peace-making. The metaphor is powerful. To be a bridge builder is a common human vocation. It can be a way of turning our weaknesses into strengths. First broadcast 19 July 2017