Through My Eyes                                               Tuesday  June 3                ( Let's read from the book realm of the Incas.) " Three other cables, tied to the base of the stone towers, formed the "floor" of the bridge; the suspension cables and the floor cables were then held together by additional cables and the floor of the bridge had wooden supports.  The middle of the  bridge sagged from it's own weight , and there were no guy ropes added to steady the bridge so that in the high winds it swayed dangerously.  The Apurimac-chaca was known as the bridge. The early Spaniards crossed it with fright and terror, and their letters  are filled with their plaints of it.Yet to the Incas crossing it was no problem. They were not mounted and their llamas did not seem  to share the fright of white man's mules. This bridge, built c. 1350 A.D., endured for over five hundred years; it lasted through the entire Inca regime, was kept up by the Spaniards during the entire Colonial epoch ,ended 1824, and it continued in use during the  Republican government. Suspension cables were renewed every year. The village of Cura-huasi, 18 miles north, had as part of its mit'a labor service the job of upkeep of the bridge  and it was so traditional that  the villagers kept this up until the bridge  fell into disuse.  This was equally true of all bridges of this type in the Inca realm; each village closest to it was expected to keep it up." ( More spinning and weaving at a tremendous scale to inspire us! ) I promise to add more tomorrow...   Through my eyes                                                                                                            *   This is still  from the book Realm of the Incas .