Latest / Ridiculous History / When West Virginia Begged the USSR for Foreign Aid

Transcript

When West Virginia Begged the USSR for Foreign Aid · Ridiculous History

• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Hello, Hi, how are you? Thank you for tuning into
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History. Several of us listening today will be familiar
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: with an area of the world known as Appalachia, the Appalachians,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Appalachian Mountains, right, I've got I've got some past there. Um.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: And the thing that's interesting about it is, even if
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you live in the US, odds are that you have
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: not been there because it's it's quite a rural area,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: but it's where today's story takes place. My name is Ben,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: my name is nel Ben. Have you did you know
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that if if you hike certain parts of the Appalachian Trail,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you get little rings on your walking stick or there's
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: some kind of merit badge you're supposed to get where
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: you can show on equivocally that you have hiked the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: entire Appalachian Trail. I have. I have exactly zero of those.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I also well have hiked parts of the trail. I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: have not hiked the entire thing. It's a heck of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a commitment, but it's a noble thing to do, Almost
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: as noble as being the producer on shows like Ridiculous History,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: which reminds me should shout out our super producer, Casey
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: peg group. So, no, you have never hiked the trail,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: but you've been to the Appalachians. Yeah, I have, and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I've I've been on parts of the trail. That's where
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I found out about the medallion system, where it's these
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: little kind of curved metal pieces that indicate which parts
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of the trail you successfully completed. And if you're like
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a real ball or a real Appalachian trailhead, you have
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a stick that's just like you know, covered in these things,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: right right, just lousy with them. Well, one of the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: most interesting thing about exploring this area of the world
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: is that you'll run into places where time seems to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: have slowed down or things go at their own relatively
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: isolated pace. And in today's episode, we're going to explore
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a tiny community that is, in its own way, very isolated.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's called Vulcan in the western edge of West Virginia.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: That's about as west as it gets, my friend, right, Okay,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: that's that's actually not entirely true, but it's as west
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: as it gets in West Virginia. Right, it's a Virginia wise,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this is the west ist. Vulcan. West Virginia is an
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: interesting case. It's located along the Tug Fork, which is uh,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: you know, part of the Tug River, and this is
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: often called one of the us is most storied waterways.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Vulcan is named after you know, spoiler alert, the god
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of fire and Roman athology, Vulcan, and this is something
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: we had talked about off air. Vulcan makes an appearance
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in a fantastic novel and set of TV adaptations called
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. You saw that, right, I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: did a season two out yet or it's about to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: come out. Yeah, um, I'm I'm excited. That's one of
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: those shows where I don't know about everybody else, but
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I made the decision a while back that if I
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: really enjoy a show, I want to wait until the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: entire season is out before watching it because Netflix ruined me. Man.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I just I can't watch something and wait for a
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: week and hope it shows up next week. It just
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: it triggers all kinds of you know, abandonment issues and patients.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I'll tell you, I actually kind of I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: like it in a different way. I like being with
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the band, but I also like the old school cliffhanger
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: having to wait a week mentality of traditional television release.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I'll do that with maybe Game of Thrones. Game of
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Thrones did it with True Detective, you know, the ones
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that are edge of your cedars. I halfway did it
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: with True Detective Season three. Watched the first four episodes
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and I said, oh wait, then you took a couple
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of weeks off and then you had some little binge
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: abole episodes for you. Yep. In the case of Vulcan,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: West Virginia, we find a town that is very much
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: isolated by geography more so than say culture. Right, we
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: could we talk a little bit about where Vulcan is.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: We said, it's it's in this very southwestern corner of
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: West Virginia. But what's it around, Well, it's I mean,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it's kind of its own, weird little island in some ways,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and that there's no connection to the surrounding um areas
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: except through a little footbridge at the Norfolk and Western
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Railway runs through the middle of the town um and
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that separates the two sides of the town um from
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: one being low caated on the river bank. And then
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: there are ones that are up more inland on a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: hill um that is very near to a cemetery called
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Vulcan Hill. Uh. And here's the thing. I mean, even
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: to get out of the city, out of this little hamlet,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you would have to sometimes cross underneath parked railway cars.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Um kids, school kids had to catch the bus on
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the Kentucky side in order to get there. They had
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: to go to some pretty perilous ends to to catch
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the bus. And some kids have even been injured. And
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I believe there was a case of a child losing
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a leg um in such a situation. Yeah, yeah, it's
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: absolutely true. So we're looking at mountains, rivers, terrain that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: is very difficult to traverse, so much so that had
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: coal not been discovered in the general vicinity here, you
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: could make a fairly strong argument that no one would
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: be living there at all. You know, maybe maybe some
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: guy decades and decades ago would have hit a moonshine
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: still out there, but even that would be um pretty arduous.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: It's still be a lot of work to get there. However,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: when coal was discovered in this area the very beginning
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, a mining camp was constructed and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: this would later grow into what we recognize as Vulcan
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: West Virginia. But but the the thing is when the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: mining camp was first constructed, when coal was first discovered there,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the miners who lived in the area had to row
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: across the river every day just to go to work,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that's right. And it wasn't until that mining company created
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: this very narrow wooden footbridge, um that folks could actually
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: get in and out of town without having to get wet. Um.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So the thing I was talking about with the kids
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and the railway cars, that was a little bit there. Yeah, yeah,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that was a little bit later. But it's an excellent
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: example of the importance of this bridge and the problems
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: with this bridge. Picture this, if we're going to do
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: a rod Sterling intro picture this town. There's one way in,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: there's one way out, and that's when the bridge is working,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: drives straight into the Vulcan zone. So so the I'm
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: freestyling here. So over the years, the people who lived
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: in this community, realizing the key nature of this bridge,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: they took great care to maintain it. And when automobiles arrived,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: when they became a thing in this part of the world,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the people of Vulcan took upon themselves to expand this
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: bridge so that they could drive these vehicles across However,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to your point, Knell, when we say expanding, we mean
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that they just bear made it big enough for one
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: car to drive across. Yeah, and this was d I
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: y ingenuity at his finest, because they didn't have somebody
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: swooping in to help them with infrastructure. It was literally
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: an effort of the townspeople to solve a problem they
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: needed solved. And to cross that bridge, a swinging footbridge
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: on a car. Good lord, that sounds like the most
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: terrifying experience ever of all time. No, no, thank you,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: sir or madam. The way that The New York Times
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: described this bridge in an article on December sixteenth, ninety
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: eight by an author named Gregory Jeans, was that there
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: was no more than a quote thumb length margin for
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: error on either side. Have you ever driven around in
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the mountains snow? Yeah, with the crazy switchbacks and like
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: where you're right off the edge of the cliff, like
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: he were so close, especially when you can't see what's
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: in front of you and you were just trusting that
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: around that that turn, You're not just gonna plummet to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: your death. Oh and you know what this makes me?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Remember in we did an epic road rally car trip. Casey,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you were there and know you were there, and I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: was there as well as my good friends Scott Benjamin.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: We had to drive through parts of West Virginia that
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: were exactly like the switchbacks and all. That's where that's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: where my main memories of it come from. Is that
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: very sketchy leg of that trip. And Scott. I don't
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: know if you know this about Scott, folks, but he
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: is a bit of a speed demon. He's got a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: lead foot. Yeah, he was not. He was taking those
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: curbs like Steve McQueen and leaving us kind of clutched,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: at least being personally clutching my my pearls. That's that's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: why I pressured him to switch switch to the wheel
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and ride Shotgun for a while and let me drive.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: But if you've if you've ever been not just in
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the Appalachian area, but if you've ever been in a
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: mountainous area in general in the car, you know what
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: we're talking about. These very narrow roads and lanes that
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: hug the side of the incline with maybe maybe some
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: wooden railing, maybe nothing, uh, And it can be very
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: disconcerting if you're a person who doesn't drive there every
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: day because people who drive there every day this is
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a normal experience to them, So they think that they'll
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: think that you are driving like um, you know, like
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: an like an elderly person, right whereas we'll think they're
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: driving like lunatics. This is one of those bridges, but
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: it's not just in the mountainous area. It's over water,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: there's not much margin for error. And then throughout the
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: decades right there, they're taking care of this bridge. It's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: an a key artery of the town. But as we know,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: as recent history is shown, coal mining doesn't last forever.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Toward the nineteen sixties or so, the coal resources begin
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to dry up and the town feels like it's entering
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: an economic decline. It feels like there's trouble. But they
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: still have the bridge, at least that is until July nineteen. Yeah,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that's when, you know, despite their best efforts to keep
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: it up. I mean, they're not professional bridge caretakers, and
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you know, understandably they've got work to do down in
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: those other dangerous part of town being the mines um.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: So the bridge collapses at crumbles and it leaves them
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: pretty much for all intended purposes in an automobile based
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: society at this point, cut off from the outside world. Yeah,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and in desperate need of some assistance. So even though
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: things had never been particularly opulent in the town of Vulcan,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: West Virginia, now things seemed increasingly desperate. One person in
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the town described it as living at the tail end
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: of nothing. They knew that this situation was unsustainable. The
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: town depended upon this bridge. Around the time of the
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: bridge collapse, a woman named Nelly Holly had ordered a
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: living room sweep from up state further up in West Virginia,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and the truck arrived with the furniture, but the driver
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: refused to bring the goods to the Holly household because
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the driver learned that the only road in the Vulcan
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: was this How does it described a ribbon of gravel
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't even public property right now, it belonged
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: to the railway. Says it was more of it more
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: or less an access road, Uh, not intended for this
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: kind of use, and kind of in a similar situation
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: we were talking about, and that it was very narrow,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: very dangerous, and you'd be putting yourself at risk, and
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: especially since it it would technically be trespassing on private property.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And so now we introduce you to a fascinating character,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: one John Robinette, who had lived in the area for
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: his entire life. He had worked as a notary, public,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a car mechanic, a carnival barker. That's something that happens
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: in a lot of small towns. There will be people
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: who have multiple different types of occupation depending upon the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: service needed at any given day. You know, So the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: person who runs the grocery store might also be the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: person who hosts the annual harvest festival or something. Right,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the person who's the dentist might also be the youth pastor. Yeah,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: sort of the way that football coaches that often teach
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: history in high school, right, oddly enough, or social studies,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: that's the other one. So this guy, John Robinette, he
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: is so sad that Miss Holly is not getting her
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: living room. Sweet it moves him on an emotional level,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: and he says, so I up and appointed myself mayor
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and set out to get us a bridge because the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: bridge had obviously collapsed. Miss Holly was seventy four years old.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: She had to hire herself a boy to go fetch
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a few sticks of furniture and haul it back against
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the law on railroad property private property. And so he
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: made it his mission as self appointed mayor to UH
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: to prosecute for the construction of this new bridge and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: talked to regional politicians, area politicians. He eventually gets as
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: far as speaking to the office of former Governor Arch Moore. However,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: it's a close but no cigar situation, a close but
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: no bridge situation, and it's for a little bit of contact.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: This article from the New York Times that you can
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: find online is from nineteen seventy eight, so this is
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: a very contemporary account of this problem. So what happens
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: is Phillis Blankenship, who ran the sixteen post office box
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: post office in vulcan Um, recounts the story like this.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: He the person who appointed himself mayor Mr Robinette, got
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: on the phone, got on the horn with the governor
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: and demanded bridge be builts, demanded satisfaction um and close
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: but no cigar. So you know what's the obvious next step.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: He's been turned down by the government of his own city, abandoned,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: left in the cold. You know they're doing this this
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: town based around this very dangerous occupation contributing to the
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the economy of the state. And the governor says, no,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: thank you, You are forgotten. You were marooned and forgotten.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: So Mr Robinette comes up with what I would say
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: is one of the most brilliant uses of like pr blackmail.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Almost yeah, yeah, So it's uh, nineteen seventies six. They've
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: just been stonewalled every time, every time they ask for
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit of help. Again, the bridge that collapsed
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: was the only legal way in and out of the town.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: People were having to drive illegally on this this flimsy
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: ribbon of gravel that the train company owned. Uh. They
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: every time they asked, they were told there was no money.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: There's no money available to spend on the bridge, according
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to reports from the West Virginia Gazette. So this is
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: what Robinette does. Mayor Robinette writes to not the local paper,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: he's already done that, Not the New York Times, any
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: paper of note. Instead, he writes directly to the U. S.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: S R. The Soviet Union, and he says, Hi, I'm
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the mayor of Vulcan, West Virginia, a small town here
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: in the United States, and we are our town is
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: gonna die if we don't get this bridge of the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: state is not gonna fund us. And in my in
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: my opinion, dear Russians, I don't think Uncle Sam cares
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: one whit about us. He sends this letter to the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Soviet embassy in Washington, d C. And at first, you know,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: at first it's like, well, is this a joke? Is
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: this just a prank, a little bit of trolling, And
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the Soviet government doesn't immediately answer until that is Robinette
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: is contacted directly by a journalist named Iona and Dronov,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Soviet reporter who wants to hear this story in person.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: So in UM December of n seven, this reporter Andronov
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: touches down in vulcan and starts making the rounds, getting
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the scoop, pounding the pavement for the gravel, I guess
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and uh, asking questions of the residents, and broadcasting it
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to the rest of the world. Right right, So Andronov
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: works for UM publication in Moscow called Litta Naval Gazeta.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: And this is solid gold, platinum level ammunition for the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: propaganda war that's going on between the uss Are and
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the US. The problem is from Uncle Sam's side that
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: US papers also knew a good headline when they see it,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and the US based publications pick it up as well,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: so in a way they are disseminating Russian propaganda for
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the U. S. S R. The Spokane Daily Chronicle writes
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: about this in seventy seven with the following quote, Soviet
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: officials well am used today by reports at the small
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: town of Voltan, West Virginia, has appealed to the Kremlin
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: for four and eight. The town, with a population of
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: two ask the Sovia government full financial help to build
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: a bridge after the town was turned down by the U. S.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: And West Virginia governments. It's crazy that newsman still talked
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: like them in the late seventies, especially since it was
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a printed paper not a radio announcement. Well, you know,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: sometimes they have to dictate, you know. So this is
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: this is also during the U not the height of
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: the Red Scare communist panic, but this is still a
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: time and place where people accuse you of being a
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: communist as an insult, or ask you if you were
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: a card carrying communist. Someone did ask in and oath
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and he said yes, actually, yeah, that's sort of our thing.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah. It got so far as to for their
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: being rumors circulating in the community that there would be
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: bomb attacks on any bridge that was built with communist cash,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: so you know, it really created a hubbub and that
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: those headlines really were disseminated. Because this is quite a
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: juicy story. So of course, all of a sudden, the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: good old us of a as we we don't like,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: we don't like to be made fun of, we don't
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: like to be made to seem cheap, even though we
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: we kind of are a lot of the time, Um
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: acquiesced and was like, okay, okay, we can do this.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: We can we can muster the money that we need
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: now that you've put our nose to the fire. Will
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: give you one point three million and we'll get you
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: your little bridge. Because here's the thing, though, it's like
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: it was really not the families that stayed behind to
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the coal industry crumbled. We're kind of these holdouts. They
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: didn't have anyhere else to go, They couldn't afford to
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: move perhaps, and they you know, this was their home.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: And it was only like in the dozens of families
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: that lived in this very small area, right, it was
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: less than it was less than a hundred families, maybe
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: maybe fifty families. But this is okay, this is where
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the story divides. This is where there are two different
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: versions of the story, two different narratives that persist in
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the modern day. So, yes, the West Virginian government does
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: agree to build this bridge, or at least provide the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: funds to build a bridge. But they do it like
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: within hours after and the nov actually gets into Vulcan.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: They do it so quickly, So let's let's kick through
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: two different versions of this story. As The New York
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Times puts it, whether by coincidence or design, the state
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of West Virginia announced on the same day of Andrewnova's
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: visit that Vulcan would get this bridge. They like the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: same day he was there, he announced. I wonder if
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: that was because of some intelligence gathering maybe. Yeah. So
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the papers have been the US papers and the Moscow papers. Uh,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: we're we're aware of this too, And that means certainly
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the intelligence apparatus was also Coakinson. But from the official
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: US government perspective, the explanation of this was West Virginia's
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: explanation is that they just they were just in the
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: approval process for months and months. It just takes a
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: long time to approve that much money and the West
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Virginian government. But to the people of Vulcan and if
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: we're being honest, to most of the people reading this
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: story from the outside, it seemed like they only reacted
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: this way because it was an international embarrassment because Mayor
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: John Robinette had just brought a Russian person down there,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and he said Also Robinette, for his part, said he
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't he doesn't care where the money comes from. He
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: just wants the bridge built. He just wants this Holly
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to get her living room sweet with some dignity. You
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: really tie the room together. It was really important for
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: her to have that living room suite. But here's the thing.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I mean it. It just goes to show how sometimes
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: a little weaponized pr move is exactly what it takes
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to get those in power to act. It's never doing
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the right thing, or often not. It's much more about
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: holding their feet of the fire and making them fear
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the potential of looking foolish. Right, And in this case
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: it worked. Two years later, two years after this hubbub
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and brew haha, on July, the bridge opened. It cost
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a little over one million dollars and the price was
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: ultimately split between the governments of West Virginia and Kentucky.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: The residents of Vulcans celebrated the opening of what they
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: called the bridge the Russians almost built, with an American
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: flag waving in the breeze and a cartoonishly large amount
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: of illegally imported vodka. Now here's the post script of
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the story, or at least the fictionalized PostScript, the part
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: where the US government, in a blatant act of revenge,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: poisons all the remaining UH inhabitants, you know, in their sleep,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: because you don't mess with you know, you mess with
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the bull, you get the horns. Yeah, I don't know
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: that's not true, but I would be pissed. Wouldn't you
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: be pissed if you were Uncle sam Um. It depends
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: on the different levels, you know, on a federal level,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: probably would be more irritated with the Um with the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: state government, like where I president at the time, I
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be irritated with the residents of Vulcan I wouldn't
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: even be that irritated with the Soviets. I'd be irritated
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: with the governor of West Virginia. That's a good point,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you know, what I mean, may it rolls downhill? My
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: friend really does. So this this is fascinating, and this
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: stunt was successful. We have to wonder whether something like
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: this could be replicated somewhere else in the world, and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: we're working with our research associate, Christopher Haciotis. One thing
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: we found was that there are plenty of other examples
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of foreign aid being given to the US or other
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: countries attempting to give foreign aid to the US, like famously,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the Messiah in Kenya after the tragedy of nine eleven
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: on September eleventh, two thousand and one, the attack on
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the World Trade Center, the Massi donated cattle to the U. S.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Did you do you remember this story? Do not? Yeah?
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: It's heartwarmings. So the Massi live in a relatively rural
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: area of Kenya, but when they learned what happened in
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: New York on September eleven, they were they were so
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: horrified and sad. They felt like they needed to do something.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: So they blessed fourteen cows and a pretty solemn ceremony
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and then gave these cows to the Deputy Chief of
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Mission at the U. S Embassy and Narrobi, a guy
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: named William brand Kick and they said, here, please bring
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: these two the people of New York and let them know,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: you know that they are in our thoughts. And I thought,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I thought that was hard warming, because that's not propaganda
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: at all. That's just being very human, you know what
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I mean. So I want to bringing that example up
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: because I do want to point out that not every
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: foreign act of charity is a propaganda move. The Russian
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: one was, though, totally the record. Yeah, and now, um,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: you can, I think, still visit this area through that
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: very bridge that was constructed, the bridge that the Russians
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: almost built, which is now a single um small two
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: lane road bridge over the Tug which is just a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: single lane tunnel bridge that is covered in graffiti, which
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I love that in it. It's almost like its own
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: little mini Berlin Wall. And this is where our story
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: ends today. However, never fear it's not the end of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: our show. We will be back with more strange dare
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: we say, ridiculous tales of people, places and events throughout
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: this uh, the weird experiment that we call human civilization.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, we want to hear from you, folks.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Do you have any stories from I in particular, will
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: be um personally fascinated by any stories of the Appalachian Mountains.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: But regardless of where you live in the world, do
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you have any stories like this, any very isolated towns
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: that had to use unorthodox means to for survival? Yeah,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: any bridge related stories? And hey, if you're a New Yorker,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: are you a bridge or a tunnel person? What do
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: you prefer? Let it really is cab drivers are often
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: after that, and I'm like, I don't know which which
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: everyone's best. I think part of it is, you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the cab drivers will present it in terms of what's
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: better given traffic patterns. But a lot of people do
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: have crippling fears of either going on bridges like my
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: my mother hates bridges, or they have a fear of
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: going into the ground, you know. So it's really is
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a polite way to ask which terrifies you least. That's
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a really interesting way of looking at it, And I
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: never thought of that, So let us know which terrifies
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: you most, or at least you can write to us
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: at Ridiculous at how stuff works dot com. You can
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: check out our social media presencies at Facebook, where you
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: can join our grew called the Ridiculous Historians, which we
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: find to be a lot of fun, and you can
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: follow us both personally. We have our very own instagrams. No,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: you've got one, Yeah, it's at Embryonic Insider and I'm
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: at ben Boland Thinks as always to our super producer
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Casey Pegram. Thanks to our research associate friend of the show,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Christopher Haciotas, who were overdue to have a guest appearance,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: really are and he's always the best. In fact, sometimes
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: on the one that you have to do to join
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the Ridiculous Stories on Facebook is say who name one
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: of us as the host? And occasionally some whole named Christopher,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: which I appreciate because he appears so infrequently, his appearances
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: must really make an impact. I love, I love all
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the guests that we have on our show, and you
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: know it gets weird, but always weird in a good way.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Thanks also to Alex Williams who composed our track, to
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: our research associate Gabe and no thanks to the people
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: of West Virginia. Really there are resilient people and they
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: know how to get stuff done. We'll see you next time, folks,