Abandoned Railroad Bridge — Pericles One Target (Derelict Span)

A long-unused railroad span of corroded steel trusses and sagging wooden ties: rusted rails cut across a rotten, uneven deck punctured by missing planks and encroaching vegetation. Flaking paint and graffiti scar the girders; the structure looks narrow but substantial enough for standard track and visibly unsafe to cross. In the Situation Room it appears as a pinned coordinate on the Pericles One slide—treated by staff as a fixed tactical target rather than a preserved landmark.

2 appearances

Purpose

To carry railroad traffic across a geographic gap (rail transport infrastructure).

Significance

Functions as a plotted military target in the Pericles One briefing and as rhetorical evidence in the debate over proportional retaliation: its presence on the strike list helps Bartlet argue that predictable, measured strikes would be anticipated and thus insufficient, making the bridge a narrative touchstone for the moral and strategic rift between the President and his advisers.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S1E3 · A Proportional Response

From Coffee to 'Total Disaster'

The abandoned railroad bridge is another enumerated Pericles One target; its inclusion as a derelict, low-civilian-risk target sharpens Bartlet's complaint that predictable, limited strikes won't satisfy the moral demand for retribution.

Before: Marked on briefing materials as a target coordinate.

After: Still listed but rhetorically dismissed by the President as evidence Pericles One is insufficiently consequential.

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S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Rejecting Proportionality — Bartlet Demands a Disproportionate Strike

The abandoned railroad bridge appears as a plotted target on the briefing slides; it stands for sanitized military logic — a strikeable object whose emptiness makes a proportional attack tactically feasible but narratively unsatisfying to Bartlet.

Before: Pinned on the Pericles One slide as a high-rated, unoccupied target.

After: Still a listed target but rhetorically undermined by the President's insistence that such predictable, empty strikes are inadequate.

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