Gerda McMillan has seen a lot of conflicts in her 90 years.
In a recent story in The Columbian, she recalled the devastation of World War II; the post-war hostilities that split her native Germany into a free nation and a Communist state; and even a U.S. Army policy that defined Gerda and her future husband as enemies.
After marrying U.S. Army Sgt. Paul McMillan, she came to this country as a German war bride and left those chapters of her life behind. — except maybe for a long-simmering debate about a bridge.
It gets a mention in her new biography, “No Enemy of Mine,” written in collaboration with Vancouver author Terri Potts.
McMillan also shared that tale with us in 2010. Back then, she noted that the lengthy debate over replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge reminded her of a long-ago bridge dispute that was part of her childhood.
Born Gerda Velten in 1924, she often crossed a bridge that connected Bonn and Beuel. (She pronounced it as “boil”).
“The cities were like Vancouver and Portland.”
That bridge across the Rhine River was completed in the 1890s, after years of arguing about financing, location and economic impact, she said.
“Finally, Bonn decided to build the bridge alone,” McMillan said.
To show “appreciation” for Beuel’s minimal contribution, Bonn decorated the bridge with a statue of a man bent over, his rear end facing the folks in Beuel.
“He was mooning them.”
She remembers paying a roughly 2-cent toll to cross the bridge and bicycling past the statue as a child.
When the German army destroyed the bridge in the closing months of the war, the statue was buried in an innkeeper’s garden to protect it from looters.
The image of “Little Bridge Man” remains part of the new bridge’s design, on a promenade under the span.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
