“To me a bridge symbolizes an obstacle overcome, man triumphing over nature, and even the passageway to other worlds,” writes Trinh Thai, a senior civil
engineering major who is about to embark on a Watson Fellowship.
Blending her fascination with bridges and her personal background as a Vietnamese immigrant of Chinese ancestry, Trinh Thai's proposal to study the social, political and
economic effects of historic bridges in England, Italy, China and Japan recently won her a Watson, a one-year grant of $16,000 from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to fund travel
and study abroad. Only 60 students from 50 American colleges and universities received the fellowship.
“I think we can learn a lot from ancient bridges,” explains Thai, a resident
of Queens, N.Y., and a 1991 graduate of Norman Thomas High School. “With all of our
modern technology, we often lose sight of simplicity.” She will be photographing the
bridges and exploring why the bridges were built and what stories or myths may surround
them.
In England, where she will spend a little over a month, she will be exploring slab or
“clapper” bridges, such as the Eastleach Martin Bridge. She will then move to
Italy, where she will also spend about a month studying bridges built by the Romans,
including Ponte Di Augusto in Rimini and Ponte Rotto in Rome.
Thai will spend most of her year in Asia, beginning in China. She is looking forward to
returning to China, where she spent a Term Abroad in 1993. “My first brief visit to
China reaffirmed the pride I have in myself and my ancestry. I met relatives I didn't know
existed and felt quite at home,” she explains in her proposal. “Through the
Watson I hope to extend my introduction into a more thorough exchange and experience in
China and with the Chinese.”
She is hoping to learn more about her cultural identity through studying Asian bridges.
“I feel that not enough emphasis is put upon what can be learned from Asia, in
particular China and Japan,” she explains. In China, she is planning on visiting the
An-Chi bridge at Chao Chou, the Camel Back bridge in the Summer Palace at Beijing and the
Poh Lam bridge over Dragon River in Fukien. In Japan, she is interested in the Engetsu
Bridge, Kintai Bridge, and the Isahaia Bridge in Kiushu, Japan.