Review: Suspenseful story of two boys and a trestle bridge
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2012
Ben Woodward's "The Trestle" is a thrilling and suspenseful story of a challenge that one teenage boy wants to put himself through in order to forget things in his past that he feels guilty for, whether the guilt is earned or not.  The two boys who are involved in this are cousins, one a senior in high school and one a sophomore.The trestle bridge was very high and at one point after its construction, the author tells us that it was the highest trestle bridge in the world, with trains passing over it in north-south directions. No railings were on the sides and people had died going out on this bridge that crossed over the Kentucky River.  Tom and Will, the two cousins, lived not far from the bridge, and Tom was afraid of heights and Will was afraid of the trains on the bridge that was so high above the ground, especially if the trains were ones not on the schedule.What Tom does with Will right behind him is so nerve-wracking and keeps the reader on the edge of his/her seat until the situation is resolved.  I was interested right from the very beginning and the tension didn't let up until the end of the story.Ben Woodward has written an excellent story of two boys coming of age and of purging the past of one of them.  It is well-written and as a Young Adult short story, it should definitely keep the attention of the younger ages.  It certainly kept mine.I was so intrigued by this story and by the historical bridge that I did a little research on it and found a page of postcards of High Bridge, which is a tourist attraction today and as the author tells at the end, is still in use.  This is a great story for kids and adults, too, and I highly recommend it as an entertaining story and also one that has real history as its foundation.