WEBVTT - CLASSIC: When West Virginia Begged the USSR for Foreign Aid 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.920 Fellow Ridiculous Historians. Have you ever been in a situation 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:09.520 where you say, Hey, I've got to ask an unfamiliar 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:10.680 person for a favor. 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:15.280 H You know I have, and it's awkward, But when 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.040 you're desperate, you do what's got to be done. Yes, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:23.080 this classic episode is about our friends in West Virginia 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:29.280 who once upon a time begged the USSR for foreign 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:31.560 aid at the height of the Cold War. 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:33.680 Yeah, let's go ahead and roll the tape. 0:00:36.800 --> 0:01:04.679 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, Hi, how 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:08.400 are you? Thank you for tuning into Ridiculous History. Several 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.679 of us listening today will be familiar with an area 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:17.440 of the world known as Appalachia, the Appalachians, the Appalachian Mountains, Right, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:22.000 I've got I've got some past there. And the thing 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.319 that's interesting about it is, even if you live in 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.160 the US, odds are that you have not been there 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.560 because it's quite a rural area. But it's where today's 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:34.360 story takes place. My name's Ben. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.480 My name is no Ben. Have you did you know 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.240 that if you hike certain parts of the Appalachian Trail 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.319 you get little rings on your walking stick or there's 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.480 some kind of merit badge you're supposed to get where 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.520 you can show unequivocally that you have hiked the entire 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.120 Appalachian Trail. I have exactly zero of those. 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.320 I also well have hiked parts of the trail. I 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.160 have not hiked the entire thing. It's a heck of 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.080 a commitment, but it's a no thing to do. Almost 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:07.520 as noble as being the producer on shows like Ridiculous History, 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:09.760 which reminds me we should shout out our super producer, 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:15.840 Casey Pegrip. So nol, you have never hiked the trail, 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:17.639 but you've been to the Appalachians yet I. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:19.840 Have, and I have been on parts of the trail. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.480 That's where I found out about the medallion system, where 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.160 it's these little kind of curved metal pieces that indicate 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.799 which parts of the trail you successfully completed. And if 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.880 you're like a real ball or a real Appalachian trailhead, 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.600 you have a stick that's just like you know, covered 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:35.760 in these things. 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.000 Right right, just lousy with them. One of the most 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:43.040 interesting things about exploring this area of the world is 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.799 that you'll run into places where time seems to have 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:54.000 slowed down or things go at their own relatively isolated pace. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.720 And in today's episode, we're going to explore a tiny 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.200 community that is, in its own way, very isolated. It's 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:06.639 called Vulcan in the western edge of West Virginia. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.919 That's about as west as it gets, my friend, right, Okay, 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.400 that's that's actually not entirely true, but it's as west 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:13.760 as it gets in West Virginia. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.160 Right, it's a Virginia wise, this is the westest Vulcan. 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:23.600 West Virginia is an interesting case. It's located along the 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:28.240 Tug Fork, which is, you know, part of the Tug River, 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.200 and this is often called one of the US's most 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:37.680 storied waterways. Vulcan is named after, you know, spoiler alert, 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:42.000 the god of fire and Roman mythology, Vulcan, and this 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.440 is something we had talked about off air. Vulcan makes 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.400 an appearance in a fantastic novel and set of TV 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.880 adaptations called American Gods by Neil Gayman. You saw that, right. 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.040 I did a season two out yet been either. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.360 Or it's about to come out. Yeah, I'm excited. That's 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.720 one of those shows where I don't know about everybody else, 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.360 but I made the decision a while back that if 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.840 I really enjoy a show I want to wait until 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.960 the entire season is out before watching it because Netflix 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.359 ruined me. Man. I just I can't watch something and 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.800 wait for a week and hope it shows up next week. 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.400 It just it triggers all kinds of you know, abandonment 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:22.440 issues and patients. 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:24.520 You know, I'll tell you, I actually kind of I 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:26.760 like it in a different way. I like being able 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.200 to binge, but I also like the old school cliffhanger 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.960 having to wait a week mentality of traditional television release. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:35.800 I'll do that with maybe Game of Thrones. 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.839 Game of Thrones did it with True Detective, you know, 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:40.880 the ones that are real edge of your seaters. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.719 I halfway did it with True Detective season three. Watched 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:47.680 the first four episodes and I said, I'll wait. 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:49.680 Then you took a couple of weeks off, and then 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.560 you had some little bingeable episodes for you. 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:58.919 Yep. In the case of Vulcan, West Virginia, we find 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.840 a town that is very much isolated by geography more 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.240 so than say culture. Right, Can we talk a little 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.279 bit about where Vulcan is? We said, it's in this 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:15.240 very southwestern corner of West Virginia. But what's it around? 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.200 Well, it's I mean, it's kind of its own weird 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.320 little island in some ways in that there's no connection 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:28.120 to the surrounding areas except through a little footbridge. The 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.880 Norfolk and Western Railway runs through the middle of the town, 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:38.160 and that separates the two sides of the town from 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.080 one being located on the river bank. And then there 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.880 are ones that are up more inland on a hill 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.160 that is very near to a cemetery called Vulcan Hill. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.920 And here's the thing. I mean, even to get out 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.080 of the city, out of this little hamlet, you would 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:03.480 have to sometimes cross underneath parked railway cars. Kids school 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.760 kids had to catch the bus on the Kentucky side 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.120 in order to get there. They had to go to 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:13.360 some pretty perilous ends to catch the bus, and some 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.520 kids have even been injured. And I believe there was 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.400 the case of a child losing a leg in such 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:19.039 a situation. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:25.760 Yeah, yeah, it's absolutely true. So we're looking at mountains, rivers, 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.080 terrain that is very difficult to traverse, so much so 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:36.080 that had coal not been discovered in the general vicinity here, 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.599 you could make a fairly strong argument that no one 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.200 would be living there at all. You know, maybe some 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.080 guy decades and decades ago would have hit a moonshine 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.040 still out there, but even that would be pretty arduous. 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.560 It'd still be a lot of work to get there. However, 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.680 when coal was discovered in this area the very beginning 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:03.320 of the twentieth century, a mining camp was constructed, and 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.920 this would later grow into what we recognize as Vulcan 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:14.440 West Virginia. But the thing is, when the mining camp 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.760 was first constructed, when coal was first discovered there, the 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.679 miners who lived in the area had to row across 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.000 the river every day just to go to work. 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.320 That's right. And it wasn't until that mining company created 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.480 this very narrow wooden foot bridge that folks could actually 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.920 get in and out of town without having to get wet. 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.400 So the thing I was talking about with the kids 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.040 and the railway cars, that was a little bit later. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.520 Yeah, yeah, that was a little bit later, but it's 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.960 an excellent example of the importance of this bridge and 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.240 the problems with this bridge. Picture this. If we're going 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.280 to do a rod Serling intro picture this town. There's 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.280 one way in, there's one way out, and that's when 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:05.080 the bridge is. It drives straight into the Vulcan zone. 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:09.520 So the I'm freestyling here. So over the years, the 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:14.160 people who lived in this community, realizing the key nature 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:19.040 of this bridge, they took great care to maintain it. 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:23.720 And when automobiles arrived, when they became a thing in 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.000 this part of the world, the people of Vulcan took 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.760 upon themselves to expand this bridge so that they could 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:36.600 drive these vehicles across. However, to your point, Noel, when 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:40.400 we say expanding, we mean that they just barely made 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.440 it big enough for one car to drive across. 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.880 Yeah, and this was diy ingenuity at its finest, because 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.520 they didn't have somebody swooping in to help them with infrastructure. 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.720 It was literally an effort of the townspeople to solve 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.760 a problem they needed solved and to cross that bridge, 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.960 a swinging foot bridge on a car. Good Lord, that 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.800 sounds like the was terrifying experience ever of all time. No, no, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:04.160 thank you, sir or madam. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.120 The way that The New York Times described this bridge 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.600 in an article on December sixteenth, nineteen seventy eight, by 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.480 an author named Gregory James, was that there was no 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.800 more than a quote thumb length margin for error on 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.319 either side have you ever driven around in the mountain snow? 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.360 Yeah, with the crazy switchbacks and like where you're right 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:30.040 off the edge of the cliff. You were so close, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.040 especially when you can't see what's in front of you, 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.319 and you were just trusting that around that turn, you're 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:36.839 not just going to plummet to your death. 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.000 Oh and you know what this makes me remember when 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:45.000 we did an epic road rally car trip. Casey you 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:46.840 were there, and Noel you were there, and I was 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.760 there as well as my good friend Scott Benjamin. We 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.680 had to drive through parts of West Virginia that were 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:54.920 exactly like this, switchbacks and all. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.040 Yeah, that's where that's where my main memories of it 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:01.320 come from. Is that very sketchy leg of that trip. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.600 And Scott. I don't know if you know this about Scott, folks, 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.280 but he is a bit of a speed demon. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:09.880 He's got a lead foot. 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.160 Yeah, he was not. He was taking those curbs like 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.480 Steve McQueen and leaving us kind of clutch at least 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.200 me personally clutching my pearls. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.319 That's that's why I pressured him to switch switch to 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.240 the wheel and ride shotgun for a while and let 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.000 me drive. But if you've ever been not just in 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.320 the Appalachian area, but if you've ever been in a 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.320 mountainous area in general in the car, you know what 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.600 we're talking about. These very narrow roads and lanes that 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:42.560 hug the side of the incline with maybe maybe some 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:47.280 wooden railing, maybe nothing, And it can be very disconcerting 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.120 if you're a person who doesn't drive there every day, 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:52.720 because people who drive there every day this is a 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.640 normal experience to them, so they think that they'll think 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:02.160 that you are driving like, you know, like an elderly person, 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.520 right whereas we'll think they're driving like lunatics. This is 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:08.839 one of those bridges, but it's not just in a 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.760 mountainous area. It's over water, there's not much margin for error. 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.000 And then throughout the decades, right they're taking care of 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.120 this bridge. It's a key artery of the town. But 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.679 as we know, as recent history is shown, coal mining 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:32.120 doesn't last forever. Toward the nineteen sixties or so, the 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:36.600 coal resources begin to dry up and the town feels 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.240 like it's entering an economic decline. It feels like there's trouble, 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.600 but they still have the bridge, at least that is 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.199 until July nineteen seventy five. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.080 Yeah, that's when, you know, despite their best efforts to 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.160 keep it up. I mean, they're not professional bridge caretakers, 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.680 and you know, understandably they've got work to do down 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.680 in those other dangerous part of town, being the mines. 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.680 So the bridge collapses, it crumbles, and it leaves them 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.319 pretty much for all intents and purposes in an automobile 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.760 based society at this point, cut off from the outside world. Yeah, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:10.679 and in desperate need of some assistance. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.360 So even though things had never been particularly opulent in 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.840 the town of Vulcan, West Virginia, now things seemed increasingly desperate. 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.559 One person in the town described it as living at 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:27.880 the tail end of nothing. They knew that this situation 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:33.400 was unsustainable. The town depended upon this bridge. Around the 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.720 time of the bridge collapse, a woman named Nelly Holly 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.000 had ordered a living room suitep from upstate further up 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.920 in West Virginia, and the truck arrived with the furniture, 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:50.480 but the driver refused to bring the goods to the 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.320 Holly household because the driver learned that the only road 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.240 into Vulcan was this How is it described a ribbon 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.960 of gravel and it was an even public property, right. 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:03.760 No, it belonged to the railway. It was more of 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.199 a more or less an access road, not intended for 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.760 this kind of use, and kind of in a similar 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.320 situation we were talking about, and that it was very narrow, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.160 very dangerous, and you'd be putting yourself at risk, and 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:25.119 especially since it would technically be trespassing on private property. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.520 And so now we introduce you to a fascinating character, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:36.160 one John Robinette, who had lived in the area for 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.679 his entire life. He worked as a notary public, a 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.040 car mechanic, a carnival barker. That's something that happens in 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.720 a lot of small towns. There will be people who 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:50.040 have multiple different types of occupation depending upon the service 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.040 needed at any given day. You know. So the person 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.640 who runs the grocery store might also be the person 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.719 who hosts the annual harvest festival or something. Right, the 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.840 person who's the dentist might also be the youth pastor. 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.200 Yeah, sort of the way that football coaches don't often 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.720 teach history in high school. 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.800 Right, oddly, or social studies. Also, sure, that's the other one. 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:15.760 So this guy, John Robinette, he is so sad that 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:20.400 Miss Holly is not getting her living room sweet. It 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:25.160 moves him on an emotional level, and he says, so 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.080 I up and appointed myself mayor and set out to 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.880 get us a bridge. Because the bridge had obviously collapsed. 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.880 Miss Holly was seventy four years old, she had to 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.280 hire herself a boy to go fetch a few sticks 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.120 of furniture and haul it on back against the law 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:46.000 on railroad property private property. And so he made it 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:52.560 his mission as self appointed mayor to prosecute for the 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:58.040 construction of this new bridge and talk to regional politicians, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.680 area politicians. He eventually gets as far as speaking to 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.400 the office of former Governor Arch Moore. However, it's a 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:11.040 close but no cigar situation, a close but no bridge situation, and. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:12.680 Just for a little bit of contact. This article from 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.200 the New York Times that you can find online is 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.000 from nineteen seventy eight, so this is a very contemporary 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.440 account of this problem. So what happens is Phyllis Blankenship, 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:29.040 who ran the sixteen post office Box post office in Vulcan, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.960 recounts the story like this. He the person who appointed 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.320 himself mayor, mister Robinette, got on the phone got on 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.880 the horn with the governor and demanded a bridge be builds, 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.960 demanded satisfaction and close but no cigar. So you know 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.520 what's the obvious next step. He's been turned down by 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:56.560 the government of his own city, abandoned, left in the cold. 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.840 You know, they're doing this this town based around the 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:06.080 very dangerous occupation contributing to the economy of the state. 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.400 And the governor says, no, thank you. You are forgotten. 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:14.840 You are marooned and forgotten. So mister Robinette comes up 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.480 with what I would say is one of the most 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:21.680 brilliant uses of like pr blackmail. 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:28.080 Almost yeah, yeah, So it's nineteen seventy six. They've just 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.320 been stonewalled every time, every time they ask for a 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.160 little bit of help. Again, the bridge that collapsed was 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.920 the only legal way in and out of the town. 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:42.640 People were having to drive illegally on this flimsy ribbon 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.200 of gravel that the train company owned. They every time 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.840 they asked, they were told there was no money. There's 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.840 no money available to spend on the bridge, according to 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.080 reports from the West Virginia Gazette. So this is what 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:01.040 Robinette does. Mayor Robinette rights to not the local paper 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.520 he's already done that, not the New York Times, any 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:08.600 paper of note. Instead, he writes directly to the USSR, 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.280 the Soviet Union, and he says, Hi, I'm the mayor 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.080 of Vulcan, West Virginia, a small town here in the 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.560 United States, and we are our town is going to 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.560 die if we don't get this bridge. The state is 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:28.360 not going to fund us. And in my opinion, dear Russians, 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.640 I don't think Uncle Sam cares one wit about us. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.879 He sends this letter to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC, 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.920 and at first, you know, at first it's like, well, 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.640 is this joke? Is this just a prank, a little 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.840 bit of trolling? And the Soviet government doesn't immediately answer 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:55.240 until that is Robinette is contacted directly by a journalist 0:17:55.320 --> 0:18:00.440 named Iona Andronov, a Soviet reporter who won to hear 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:01.479 this story in person. 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:06.119 So in December of nineteen seventy seven, this reporter Andronov 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.080 touches down in Vulcan and starts making the rounds, getting 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.200 the scoop, pounding the pavement or the gravel, I guess, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:18.280 and asking questions of the residents and broadcasting it to 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:20.920 the rest of the world right right. 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:27.200 So Endrov works for a publication in Moscow called Litterata 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:34.640 Naval Gazeta, and this is solid gold, platinum level ammunition 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:40.040 for the propaganda war that's going on between the USSR 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:46.000 and the US. The problem is from Uncle Sam's side 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.440 that US papers also know a good headline when they 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.959 see it, and the US based publications pick it up 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.840 as well, so in a way they are disseminating Russian 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:01.240 propaganda for the USSR. The Spokane and Daily Chronicle rites 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:06.359 about this in seventy seven with the following quote Soviet officials. Well, 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.399 I'm used today by reports that the small town of 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:10.520 Olk in West Virginia has appealed to the Kremlin for 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.840 four and eight. The town, with a population of two hundred, 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.280 asked the Soviet government for financial help to build a 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.320 bridge after the town was turned down by the US 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:18.560 and West Virginia governments. 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.000 It's crazy that newsmen still talked like that in the 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:22.240 late seventies. 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:23.920 Especially since it was a printed paper and not a 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:24.800 radio announcement. 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.320 Well, you know, sometimes they have to dictate, you know. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:33.960 So this is this is also during the not the 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.439 height of the Red Scare, Communist panic but this is 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.760 still a time and place where people would accuse you 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.199 of being a communist as an insult or ask you 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.240 if you were a card carrying communists. Someone did ask 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.960 Endanov and he said, yes, actually. 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.399 Yeah, that's sort of our thing. Yeah. It got so 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.760 far as to for there being rumors circulating in the 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.520 community that there would be bomb attacks on any bridge 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.400 that was built with communist cash. So you know, it 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:08.800 really created a hubbub, and that those headlines really were disseminated. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.560 Because this is quite a juicy story. So of course, 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.520 all of a sudden, the good old us of a as 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.040 we don't like we don't like to be made fun of, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.280 we don't like to be made to seem cheap, even 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.160 though we kind of are a lot of the time 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:26.560 acquiesced and was like, okay, okay, we can do this. 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.880 We can we can muster the money that we need. 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.560 Now that you've put our nose to the fire, we'll 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:33.960 give you one point three million and we'll get you 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.119 your little bridge. Because here's the thing, though, it like 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.960 it was really not. The families that stayed behind after 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:44.280 the coal industry crumbled were kind of these holdouts. They 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.560 didn't have anywhere else to go. They couldn't afford to 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.359 move perhaps, and they you know, this was their home. 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.640 And it was only like in the dozens of families 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:53.399 that lived in this very small area. 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:55.320 Right, it was less than it was less than one 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.879 hundred families, maybe maybe fifty families. But this is okay. This, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.040 this is where the story divides. This is where there 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.320 are two different versions of the story, two different narratives 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:13.400 that persist in the modern day. So yes, the West 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:18.000 Virginian government does agree to build this bridge, or at 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:20.400 least provide the funds to build a bridge, but they 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:27.120 do it like within hours after Andronov actually gets into Vulcan. 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:31.560 They do it so quickly. So let's kick through two 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.760 different versions of this story. As The New York Times 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.679 puts it, whether by coincidence or design, the state of 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:43.160 West Virginia announced on the same day of Andronov's visit 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.920 that Vulcan would get this bridge they like the same 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.480 day he was there, he announced. 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.600 I wonder if that was because of some intelligence gathering. 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:59.159 Maybe yes, So the papers have been the US papers 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.959 and the Moscow papers were aware of this too, and 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:08.199 that means certainly the intelligence apparatus was also cognizant. But 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:13.680 from the official US government perspective, the explanation of this. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:19.840 West Virginia's explanation is that they just they were just 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.600 in the approval process for months and months. It just 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.600 takes a long time to approve that much money and 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:30.040 the West Virginian government. But to the people of Vulcan, 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.439 and if we're being honest, to most of the people 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:37.720 reading this story from the outside, it seemed like they 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:41.840 only reacted this way because it was an international embarrassment 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:46.080 because Mayor John Robinette had just brought a Russian person 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:50.400 down there and he said Also Robinette, for his part, 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.680 said he doesn't he doesn't care where the money comes from. No, 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:55.080 he just wants the bridge built. 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:55.640 That's right. 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.160 He just wants Miss Holly to get her living room 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:00.760 suite with some dignity. 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:03.000 It really tied the room together. It was really important 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:09.359 for her to have that living room suite. But here's 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:12.280 the thing. I mean it it just goes to show 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:17.560 how sometimes a little weaponized pr move is exactly what 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.200 it takes to get those in power to act. It's 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.680 never doing the right thing, or often not, it's much 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.639 more about holding their feet of the fire and making 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:29.800 them fear the potential of looking. 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:34.520 Foolish, right, and in this case it worked. Two years later, 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:38.159 two years after this hubbub and Bujaha, on July fourth, 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:42.719 nineteen eighty, the bridge opened. It cost a little over 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.560 one million dollars, and the price was ultimately split between 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:51.320 the governments of West Virginia and Kentucky. The residents of 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:54.959 Vulcans celebrated the opening of what they called the bridge 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:59.560 the Russians almost built, with an American flag waving in 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:05.520 the breeze and a cartoonishly large amount of illegally imported vodka. 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:07.800 Now here's the PostScript of the story, or at least 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.800 the fictionalized PostScript, the part where the US government, in 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:17.480 a blatant act of revenge, poisons all the remaining inhabitants, 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:20.080 you know, in their sleep. Because you don't mess with 0:24:20.160 --> 0:24:23.760 you know, you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Yeah. 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:26.800 I don't know, that's not true. But I would be pissed. 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:30.919 Wouldn't you be pissed if you were Uncle Sam. 0:24:31.160 --> 0:24:34.440 It depends on the different levels, you know, on a 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:38.600 federal level, I probably would be more irritated with the 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:44.000 with the state government, like were I president at the time, 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:47.040 I wouldn't be irritated with the residents of vulcan I 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:49.679 wouldn't even be that irritated with the Soviets. I'd be 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:53.119 irritated with the governor of West Virginia. That's a good point, 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:54.760 you know what I mean, Maybe he got. 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:55.040 A talking to. 0:24:55.320 --> 0:24:59.480