Build High the Bridge

Just fold your arms, and the whole wide world stands still

Jul 30, 2024

Hi all,

Thank you for joining me for this week’s song, “Build High the Bridge”, lyrics by Ronnie Gilbert, music by Jeff Langley. If you’d like to hear the song before you read the background, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.

Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics (written in italics). Comments and questions are welcome. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEFL (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.

Lunch atop a Skyscraper, published in the New York Herald-Tribune, Oct. 2 1932, Charles Clyde Ebbets, Tom Kelley, or William Leftwich. (Public domain)

(663 words)

Today’s song was written by folksinger Ronnie Gilbert. Gilbert was a member of the Weavers, a folk group that was popular in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Weavers supported unions around the U.S., and they sang union songs.

Ronnie Gilbert co-wrote a musical based on the life of Mother Jones. This song is from that musical. Mother Jones was a labor organizer in the late 1800s through the 1920s. She is probably the most well-known organizer in U.S. history.

In this song, Gilbert sings in the voice of Mother Jones. She is asking the average worker how they feel about their work, their position, and their life.

Do you wonder at the life that you are living?

And do you ask, why must it be this way?

Have you sat down with your neighbor who labors at your side

And dared to speak of a new and brighter day?

Are your children ignorant and hungry?

And can you stand it?

Oh, tell me how you can

How long will you wait to take what’s rightly yours

To change your fate, every woman, every man?

In the chorus, Gilbert gives hope to the millions of miners, factory workers, farm laborers, and industrial workers. She says that if they can work together, they can make changes in society. They can join a union and support their comrades (other workers) when strikes are called and they stand on the picket line together. A strike shows how powerful the workers are.

Build high the bridge from span to span A span is the distance between two supports

Look up fellow workers, the moment’s now at hand

Join your comrades on the line and don’t let them fall

For in Union there is hope for one and all

Golden Gate Bridge (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The next verse talks to the many, many people who came to the U.S. from other countries in search for a better life.

Were you born a native to this country

Or were you born somewhere in foreign parts?

What happened to the promise that brought you ‘cross the sea

With the flame of freedom burning in your hearts?

The “flame of freedom” refers to the Statue of Liberty which holds a torch in her hand as a symbol of lighting the way to freedom.

It was dignity and hope they said you’d find here

If you would join in the building of the land

During the 1800s and early 1900s, the “gold barons”, a few people or families who owned factories, mines, or railroads, welcomed workers from other countries. They wanted cheap labor to build the railroads and to work in the factories. Sometimes, they gave false promises to these workers. This is similar to the “barons” who owned a lot of land hundreds of years ago. They had people working the land for them. They were called serfs, and if the land was sold, they could be sold along with it.

But the barons of gold like the barons of old

Keep you poor and chained like serfs at their command

In the final verse, Gilbert tells us the most important point of the song. Who is it that does the work in the country, day after day? It is the laborer, the factory worker, not the owners. If the workers folded their arms and said, “No, we will not work until we get good wages and safe working conditions”, the owners would not be able to sell their products.

Whose strong hands dig the black gold (coal) from the mountain?

Who tills the soil, runs the foundry and the mill?

Don’t you know my friends you’ve just to stand your ground

And fold your arms, and the whole wide world stands still

Build high the bridge from span to span

Look up fellow workers, the moment’s now at hand

Join your comrades on the line and don’t let them fall

For in Union there’s a place for all

Yes, in Union there is strength for all

Build a union with hope for one and all

Labor-Strikes-New York City, New York-union men on the picket line against Macy's, photo by Dorothea Lange, c. 1934 - NARA (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Question:

What do you think about the idea of standing together with others in order to succeed in a common goal?

Build High the Bridge

Just fold your arms, and the whole wide world stands still

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